Justin Hood sets new record as dream World Darts Championship debut continues

Underdog Justin Hood produced a stunning 4-0 victory over Josh Rock in the PDC World Darts Championship last 16 at Alexandra Palace.

The 32-year-old debutant reeled off a record 11 consecutive doubles, only missing his first when throwing for the match at 2-0 up in the fourth set.

He quickly recovered, securing the win with a 119 finish in the next leg.

This guarantees Hood a career-best payday of at least £100,000, moving him closer to his dream of opening a Chinese restaurant.

Hood, playing his first season on the PDC tour, said in his on-stage interview: “It’s not a fairytale – I know what I can do and it’s nice to prove it up there.

open image in gallery

“The only time I had a bit of nerves was when I was throwing the leg before (the last one). I’m not used to this. I usually get hate messages. This is mad.”

Hood set the tone for the tie when he won the first set with an 11-dart break of throw, leaving 11th seed Rock to watch on with wonder as he stormed to victory, finishing with a 101 average and 10 180s.

Jonny Clayton confirmed his rise to fourth in the world after hitting back from a set down to defeat Sweden’s Andreas Harrysson in their last-16 clash.

open image in gallery

Harrysson paid the price for failing to take his chances after leading 2-1 and also missing four darts to re-establish his one-set lead at 3-2.

Clayton said: “There’s a lot of things on my mind and moving to world number four was one of them.

“Every time I looked up, Andreas was hitting doubles. It was tough, I didn’t play my best and had a lot of loose darts, but that’s what pressure does to you.”

Krzysztof Ratajski is also through to the quarter-finals after pulling away to defeat Luke Woodhouse 4-2.