Humphries, Price & Wright into fourth round at Worlds

Ninth seed Damon Heta hit a nine-darter but was knocked out by Englishman Luke Woodhouse in the third round of the PDC World Championship.

The Australian celebrated wildly after hitting double 12 to complete the perfect leg - with Woodhouse raising his opponent's arm as a lively crowd roared their approval - on his way to winning the second set.

It is the second nine-darter of this year's tournament after Dutchman Christian Kist achieved the feat in the second round.

Kist also lost the match and nine of the 16 players to make a nine-dart finish at Alexandra Palace have gone on to lose the match.

Heta - who narrowly missed out on a nine-darter in the previous round - collects £60,000 for the feat, with the same amount being awarded by sponsors to a charity and to one spectator inside Alexandra Palace in London.

Posting on X, external, Heta said: "Hit a nine but lost the match… would give the nine for the win but it doesn't work that way. Never got going in that game & the nine was totally out of blue with how I was playing."

Woodhouse advances to the last 16, having fought back from 3-1 down to win the final three sets without dropping a leg.

"I've got no words at all - the crowd has been fantastic," Woodhouse told Sky Sports. "I don't think it was the greatest game in the world but I've managed to come through it. I am over the moon.

"I was just trying to put him under as much pressure as possible. I just wanted to keep on top of him as much as possible and then see what happened from there."

On Heta's nine-darter, Woodhouse added: "Me and Damo are good friends. We go and play golf together a lot and hang out and practice a lot.

"I know he was gutted when he missed the double 12 in the previous round so it was brilliant. The crowd went wild and you couldn't not celebrate."

Heta is the 15th seed to be knocked out already at the World Championship and the fourth of the top 10 seeds to depart.

Woodhouse will face Stephen Bunting in the next round after the eighth seed saw off Latvia's Madars Razma.

Bunting, the reigning Masters champion and former BDO world champion, put in an accomplished display to win 4-1.

Having taken out 113 to win the first set, 'The Bullet' swiftly won the second before being pegged back by Razma, who stole the third with a 119 checkout.

Bunting had responded well to minor setbacks throughout the match and did so again in the fourth.

Razma's 149 out took it to a deciding leg but fan favourite Bunting held throw and sealed the victory with a 96 that ensured he finished with an average of 100.06.

"I've dreamt about winning this tournament for the past 20 years and I'd love to do it," Bunting said. "With the Bunting Army behind me, who is going to stop us?"

Meanwhile, Jonny Clayton held off a valiant fightback from Daryl Gurney to take the deciding set and move into the fourth round with a 4-3 win.

Welshman Clayton edged the first set then produced checkouts of 160 and 120 to clinch the second and third respectively.

But the seventh seed faltered and Gurney took advantage, averaging over 100 in the next two sets to make it 3-2 before levelling the match after a somewhat comical leg, in which both players missed multiple darts at double.

Clayton came through in the decider, though, shrugging off three missed darts for the match to hit double four.

Afternoon Session (12:30 GMT)

Third round

Damon Heta 3-4 Luke Woodhouse

Jonny Clayton 4-3 Daryl Gurney

Stephen Bunting 4-1 Madars Razma

Evening Session (19:00 GMT)

Third round

Gerwyn Price v Joe Cullen

Jermaine Wattimena v Peter Wright

Luke Humphries v Nick Kenny

Follow live text commentary on the evening session on the BBC Sport website and app from 18:45 GMT.