Northern Ireland’s Josh Rock coasted to a 3-0 victory over Welsh debutant Rhys Griffin in the third round of the PDC World Championship at Alexandra Palace.
The Broughshane man had a possible nine-dart finish in the third set when he failed to hit a seventh treble 20.
Rock – who claimed a first European Tour title at the Dutch Championship earlier this year – goes on to meet Chris Dobey, the 2023 Masters champion, for a place in the last 16 on Friday.
However, Mickey Mansell’s campaign is over, as Jonny Clayton won a sudden-death leg in the deciding set to book his place in the third round of
Mansell, who impressed on his run to the semi-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts, had claimed the opening set against the darts as Clayton was made to pay for missed doubles.
The Welshman, though, stormed back to swiftly level as he rattled off six straight legs – including a 100 checkout with a tops-tops finish – to turn the match around.
Despite plenty of wayward throwing, Northern Irishman Mansell dug in during the fourth set and capitalised on some low scoring from Clayton to level things up at 2-2.
Mansell then landed successive monster finishes of 136 and 154 to seemingly leave seventh seed Clayton on the brink of a shock early exit.
The Ferret, though, held with a 70 checkout before a clinical 114 finish sent the decider on.
Former Premier League winner Clayton spurned three match darts – one on the bull and two on double eight – allowing Mansell to level back at 3-3.
Mansell broke to edge in front and missed his own shot for the match at tops, with Clayton recovering to square things up then holding for a 5-4 lead.
Helped by his first 180 of the match, Mansell forced a sudden-death leg – which Clayton, with advantage of throwing first, eventually wrapped up on double five following a gruelling encounter which lasted more than an hour.