Ross Smith and James Wade will battle it out for a place in the semi-finals of the World Matchplay at the Winter Gardens on Thursday night. Smith became the first player to qualify for the quarter-finals thanks to a thrilling 11-9 win over Gerwyn Price on Tuesday night. ‘Smudger’ stormed through to the last eight after hitting a whopping 13 180s against the Welshman whilst averaging a shade under 99. As such, the Dover ace is through to the quarter-finals at the World Matchplay for the first time in his career and he will now have his sights set on breaking further ground by securing a semi-final berth. Standing in Smith’s way is seasoned campaigner and former World Matchplay winner James Wade. ’The Machine' made it through to his 11th quarter-final in this event by eliminating defending champion Nathan Aspinall 11-8 on Tuesday night. Wade snuck into this summer’s showpiece as the final qualifier but he has since seen off two seeds to reach the last eight for the first time since 2019. The two arrowsmiths contrasting styles of play makes their quarter-final clash on Thursday night an intriguing prospect. Smith is renowned for being one of the heaviest scorers on the PDC circuit, while Wade is notorious for being a much more methodical operator who has made a career out of consistently grinding out success on the oche. At this stage of the competition, matches are a best-of-31 legs format – considerably longer than the previous two rounds – and there is plenty of scope that this clash goes the distance. Both players' respective round two fixtures threatened the need for overtime, and with another tight affair anticipated here, siding with over 27.5 legs holds plenty of appeal.

Luke Humphries continues his quest for a maiden World Matchplay title when he takes on Dimitri Van den Bergh at the quarter-final stage on Thursday night. Having made light work of German Ricardo Pietreczko in round one, ‘Cool Hand Luke’ has since battled to an 11-7 victory over fan favourite Stephen Bunting. As for Dimitri Van den Bergh, he lit up the Winter Gardens stage with a sensational nine-darter in his opening round success against Martin Schindler and subsequently clinched a quarter-final spot with a comfortable 11-5 win over Jonny Clayton. Having won the competition in 2020 before finishing as runner-up the following year, the Belgian always seems to save his best for Blackpool. However, ‘The Dreammaker’ faces a herculean task in his bid for another Matchplay title when he takes on tournament favourite Humphries. The reigning world champion is as short as 1.22 to come through this tie so instead take a look at the 1.5 for Humphries to hit the most 180’s. No player on the PDC circuit has hit more maximums than Cool Hand Luke (682) over the last 12 months of action, a feat which saw him scoop the inaugural Ballon d'Art award on route to triumphing at the 2024 World Darts Championship. Humphries won the 180 count 6-2 against Pietreczko in round one before being ‘outmaxed’ 6-4 by Bunting in round two. However, ‘The Bullet’ ranks fourth for 180’s over the last year (524), whereas Humphries’ latest foe Van den Bergh has not been as prolific when it comes to filling up the treble 20 bed across the same time span (306). It’s also worth noting that the Belgian hit less 180s when defeating the aforementioned Schinlder in round one. Given the significant increase to a best-of-31 legs format at the quarter-final stage, heavy-hitting Humphries looks well placed to deliver the most 180s when going up against the Dreamaker.