WADE & CLAYTON SET UP SEMI-FINAL SHOWDOWN AT BETFRED WORLD MATCHPLAY

James Wade and Jonny Clayton will go head-to-head in the Betfred World Matchplay semi-finals on Saturday, after overcoming Gian van Veen and Stephen Bunting in their respective quarter-final ties on Thursday.

Day Six of the summer’s biggest darts event saw the opening two quarter-finals take place in Blackpool, with 2007 champion Wade and 2023 runner-up Clayton advancing to the last four.

Clayton swept aside a below-par Bunting to wrap up a convincing 16-7 success, while Wade defied a sluggish start to defeat World Youth Champion Van Veen 16-13 in the evening’s opener.

The Aldershot veteran is the only former champion left in the field, and he maintained his remarkable record at the Winter Gardens to progress to a tenth World Matchplay semi-final.

The 42-year-old made an uncharacteristically sloppy start – missing each of his first 11 darts at double – and Van Veen punished this profligacy to establish an early 4-1 advantage.

However, Wade responded with an incredible sequence of eight consecutive legs to seize control of the contest, converting 68, 86, 80 and 61 combination finishes to storm into a 9-4 lead.

Van Veen hit back with a three-leg spell of his own in the latter stages to reduce the arrears to 13-11, although the Dutchman paid the price for missing two darts at double 16 in a pivotal 25th leg.

Wade duly capitalised to move two legs away from victory, before defying some heavy artillery from Van Veen in the closing stages to wrap up another impressive victory.

“I’m so, so happy. I’m buzzing,” reflected Wade, also a five-time runner-up at this event.