![\"Josh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0023a6ee-614.jpg\"\/)
\nJosh Rock (L) had too much for Gemma Hayter<\/p>\n
Irish pair Willie O’Connor and Keane Barry breezed through their opening assignments at the PDC World Championship on Friday.<\/p>\n
Limerick man O’Connor averaged 102.3 in a 3-0 win over Krzysztof Kciuk of Poland to earn a shot at three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen in round two.<\/p>\n
Later, Meath native Barry looked impressively assured as he beat Australian Tim Pusey 3-0. Barry will next face German No 1 Martin Schindler.<\/p>\n
In the day’s earlier session Beau Greaves narrowly missed out on a first win at the tournament after a 3-2 defeat by Daryl Gurney.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old from Doncaster, making her second appearance on the Alexandra Palace stage, hit a remarkable 10-dart leg to level the match against the 22nd seed.<\/p>\n
But Northern Ireland World Cup winner Gurney pulled off the biggest checkout of the match, a 144, to break in the deciding set before wrapping up victory despite only winning 10 legs to Greaves’ 11.<\/p>\n
“For me, she’s the best woman dart player on the planet,” Gurney said on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
“If there’s going to be a dart player that can win the World Championships or any majors, that’s the player you want to look to. Even from a man’s point of view, that woman has got some cajones.<\/p>\n
“Obviously everybody says that she was the favourite coming into the game, but sometimes I showed my class, I showed my composure, and I got over the finish line.”<\/p>\n
\nJosh Rock (L) had too much for Gemma Hayter<\/p>\n
In the afternoon session Josh Rock survived a minor scare before overcoming Gemma Hayter 3-1.<\/p>\n
The Northern Irishman, touted by many as a tip for the title, cruised into a two-set lead before Hayter seized the third and pushed him to the limit as she pressed for parity in the fourth.<\/p>\n
Rock, a 2025 World Cup winner alongside Gurney, missed 10 darts at doubles in a below-par first set but appeared to have shrugged off his early nerves as he cruised through the second.<\/p>\n
But Hayter, who qualified by finishing fifth on the 2025 Women’s Series order of merit, stepped up to seize the third set and battled to a deciding leg in the fourth before Rock belatedly got the job done with an 81 checkout.<\/p>\n
American showman Lenny Gates joined Rock in round two after chiselling out a 3-2 win over another Northern Irishman, Mickey Mansell.<\/p>\n
Ryan Meikle had no trouble dispatching Argentina’s Jesus Salate 3-0, while Dutchman Kevin Doets came from a set down to defeat Matthew Dennant 3-1.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Johnny Clayton has received a bye into the third round after opponent Dom Taylor was disqualified for failing a drugs test.<\/p>\n
The Darts Regulation Authority said: “On December 19, the DRA was notified of an adverse analytical finding in respect of the player Dom Taylor resulting from a test conducted on December 14.<\/p>\n
“As a result of this and in line with relevant DRA processes, Dom Taylor has been suspended from participating in any DRA regulated events with immediate effect.<\/p>\n
“This matter will now be the subject of a disciplinary process in line with the relevant DRA anti-doping rules.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish pair Willie O’Connor and Keane Barry breezed through their opening assignments at the PDC World Championship on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-201671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}