Preview Thursday afternoon PDC World Darts Championship: Anderson looks to avoid upset against Hood while Clayton and Searle battle out for semi-final spot

2025 is in the books, and we kick off the new year right away with a cracking afternoon session at the 2026 PDC World Darts Championship. Eight players remain in the hunt for the coveted world title, and four of them step up this afternoon. Among them are the world number 4, a two-time world champion, and the revelation of this tournament taking to the stage.

The first match of the afternoon pits Englishman Ryan Searle against the current world number 4 Jonny Clayton. They will decide who becomes the first semi-finalist of this World Championship. After that, two-time world champion Gary Anderson takes on this year’s breakout star Justin Hood in his quarter-final.

An opener to savour if you ask us. Ryan Searle is one of the form men at this Worlds and hasn’t dropped a single set so far. Chris Landman (3-0), Brendan Dolan (3-0), Martin Schindler (4-0) and James Hurrell (4-0) were all swept aside in succession to secure his spot in the last 8. In his last two matches he even averaged over 100. Against Hurrell in the fourth round he faced resistance in the first set and needed a deciding leg to take it, but after that it was relatively comfortable. He won the second set 3-0, then took the next two sets 3-1 to ‘Heavy Metal’, reaching the World Championship quarter-finals for the first time in his career.

There he meets Welshman Jonny Clayton. ‘The Ferret’ faced slightly more resistance in his previous matches than Searle, but still booked his place in the last 8 convincingly. In his first match he brushed aside Adam Lipscombe 3-1, then received a bye in the second round after opponent Dom Taylor was disqualified following a positive doping test. In the third round he did face a stern test and had to produce his best to beat Dutchman Niels Zonneveld 4-3. The fourth round wasn’t straightforward either. After four sets it was 2-2 against debutant Andreas Harrysson, and the Swede then missed four darts to win the fifth set. Clayton capitalised and closed it out in set 6 to win 4-2 and reach the quarter-finals.

Searle and Clayton know each other well and have met eleven times in their careers. Five of those were on TV. Overall Clayton has the narrow edge, winning 6 of the 11 against ‘Heavy Metal’. On TV the pattern is similar. Of their five televised meetings, ‘The Ferret’ has won 3 while Searle has been strongest twice. Their most recent clash at the European Championship in October 2025 went Searle’s way, as he proved too strong for the Welshman with a 6-3 win. If we go by the numbers and head-to-head, we should be in for a tight first quarter-final between the two.

This one’s a belter too. Two-time world champion Gary Anderson faces the man of the tournament: Justin Hood. Anderson hasn’t had anything handed to him in his previous matches. He opened against Adam Hunt, easy on paper, but not in reality. Hunt was superb and both men averaged around 95. Anderson eventually took it in a deciding set. In his second match he met Scutt, who also pushed the Scot hard and only just failed to force a deciding set, allowing Anderson to win 3-1. In the third round it looked comfortable against Wattimena, but ‘The Flying Scotsman’ missed multiple match darts, letting Wattimena come back from 3-1 to 3-3. A tiebreak was needed in the decider, where Anderson edged it 5-3. In his fourth match he met, on paper, his toughest opponent: Michael van Gerwen. In practice, it turned out to be perhaps the easiest hurdle. The Dutchman certainly wasn’t poor, but Anderson hurt him with finishes at the right moments and ran out a relatively comfortable 4-1 winner.

And then there’s Hood. The man who has stunned everyone at this tournament. And now he faces two-time world champion Gary Anderson. But would it still be a shock if he beats him too? Hood’s opener was one-sided as he beat Nick Kenny 3-0, but the second round produced perhaps the match of the Worlds. He drew Danny Noppert, and it was a spectacle. Both averaged over 102 and at 2-2 it went to a deciding set. In that set Hood piled in 180s, but Noppert looked unbreakable with multiple 100+ checkouts. It took a sudden-death leg, where Hood finally edged this thriller. The third round was another cruise, 4-1 against Ryan Meikle. In the fourth round he faced Josh Rock, another tough one on paper. Hood delivered a finishing masterclass, taking everything in one dart and leaving Rock no way back. At 3-0 in sets and 2-0 in legs, ‘Happy Feet’ was 11 from 11 on the doubles, but missed his first match dart and lost the 100% mark. He still finished at 75% and won emphatically, 4-0.

Given Justin Hood was relatively unknown before this Worlds, it’s no surprise he and Anderson have never met. Based on stature and their Order of Merit ranking, Anderson should be the favorite. But if Hood has shown anything at this World Championship, it’s that in this form he can beat anyone. So it wouldn’t surprise anyone if he also adds a two-time world champion to his scalps to give his Worlds fairytale another chapter.