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58 minutes ago
Christmas is almost upon us and darts fever has well and truly taken over.
The festive period and the World Championship at Alexandra Palace go hand-in-hand these days, especially with the Luke Littler effect putting dart boards on the top of many lists to Santa.
Mickey Mansell and Brendan Dolan have already been in action in London, while Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney have yet to take to the oche.
Let’s take at look at the four hopefuls from Northern Ireland who will look to claim top honours in the new year.
Brendan Dolan
Brendan Dolan put a superb run together at the 2024 World Darts Championship before his run was ended by Littler in the quarter-finals.
The Fermanagh player, who is seeded 30th, also reached the quarter-finals in 2019 and has the ability to put a strong run together.
After a second-round win over Lok Yin Lee in straight sets, Dolan will be the underdog against three-time champion Michael van Gerwen in the third round after Christmas.
However, Dolan is capable of springing a surprise – he dumped out Gerwyn Price and Gary Anderson last year on his run to the last eight.
The 51-year-old won his first ranking title in two years at the Players Championship 10 in May but has struggled for consistency since.
But darts is a funny old game and Dolan is confident of causing an upset.
Josh Rock
Big things were expected from Josh Rock when he burst on to the darts scene in 2022 by winning the World Youth Championship.
The 23-year-old made his World Championship debut the following year and made the fourth round, but was shocked by qualifier Berry van Peer in his opening match last year.
Rock, the highest-ranked player from Northern Ireland, is seeded 18th for this year’s World Championship.
The Broughshane player has had his most successful year to date on the PDC Tour as he won his first European title at the Dutch Darts Championship in May and he also collected two Players Championship Series titles, including the last event in October.
He starts his World Championship bid against Wales’ Rhys Griffin in Monday’s afternoon session.
Qualifier Griffin hit an average of 91.10 as he defeated Karel Sedlacek in straight sets in the first round so can’t be underestimated.
Daryl Gurney
Like Dolan, Daryl Gurney is a two-time quarter-finalist at the World Championship with his last appearance in the last eight coming in 2021.
However, since then, the 38-year-old has not got past the fourth round as he slipped down the rankings after being a consistent top-10 player in the years leading up to the Covid pandemic.
Gurney won the World Grand Prix in 2017 and the Players Championship finals the following year, when he beat Van Gerwen. He will be dreaming that he can rediscover that form over the festive period.
‘Superchin’, seeded 26th at this year’s championship, takes on Germany’s Florian Hempel in the evening session on Monday.
If he wins that, there could be a potential all-Northern Ireland match with Mansell in the third round.
In fact, if the stars align then Gurney or Mansell could face Rock in the quarter-finals, but there are a lot of darts to be played before that becomes a possibility.
Mickey Mansell
This is Mickey Mansell’s ninth appearance at the World Darts Championship but he has yet to progress past the second round at Alexandra Palace.
Last year, Mansell in the second round to Dolan, who went on to the quarter-finals.
In one of the surprise runs of 2024, Mansell reached the semi-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts in November.
He’ll be hoping for another fairytale run like that at the Ally Pally.
The 51-year-old defeated Japan’s Tomoya Goto in a low-scoring opening round and he will face Johnny Clayton of Wales in the second round on Monday afternoon.
