Summary

  • Beau Greaves beaten in deciding set by 22nd seed Daryl Gurney in PDC World Championship first round

  • Greaves was aiming to become second female player to win a match at the tournament, after Fallon Sherrock did so in December 2019

  • Former World Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall beats Lourence Ilagan, ending with 170 checkout

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  1. What is the World Darts Championship prize money?published at 19:11 GMT 19 December 2025

    Luke Littler celebratesImage source, PA Media

    A record-breaking £5m prize pool is on offer at this year's tournament, with £1m going to the winner.

    Any player hitting a nine-darter will be awarded an additional £60,000. One lucky fan in attendance will also receive £60,000 from the tournament sponsor, as will Prostate Cancer UK.

    • Winner: £1,000,000
    • Runner-up: £400,000
    • Semi-final losers: £200,000
    • Quarter-final losers: £100,000
    • Fourth-round losers: £60,000
    • Third-round losers: £35,000
    • Second-round losers: £25,000
    • First-round losers: £15,000
  2. What is the format at the World Darts Championship?published at 19:09 GMT 19 December 2025

    Stephen BuntingImage source, PA Media

    The format is set play, unlike other tournaments which are a race to a number of legs.

    A set consists of the best of five legs or race to three. Tonight's games will be a best of five sets.

    Only in matches where players are level on sets and legs in the deciding set do players need to win by two clear legs - as was required by world number four Stephen Bunting in his first-round win against Poland's Sebastian Bialecki.

    Should the final set of a match go to 5-5 in legs, the 11th leg will be a sudden-death decider to determine the match winner. Alan Soutar beat Teemu Harju in that fashion in round one.

    • First and second round: Best of five sets
    • Third and fourth round: Best of seven sets
    • Quarter-finals: Best of nine sets
    • Semi-finals: Best of 11 sets
    • Final: Best of 13 sets
  3. A 71-year-old winner and lots of wasps - stories of the first roundpublished at 19:06 GMT 19 December 2025

    Paul LimImage source, PA Media

    An expanded 128-player field has meant an extended first round of this year's World Championship, with the final four of the 64 opening-round matches being played this evening.

    And it certainly hasn't disappointed so far.

    Shocks have been fairly few and far between, with 18th seed Mike de Decker's early exit against Kenyan debutant David Munyua by far the most notable.

    We've had 71-year-old Paul Lim becoming the tournament's oldest ever match winner and historic wins for players such as Munyua, India's Nitin Kumar and Switzerland's Stefan Bellmont.

    The Alexandra Palace crowd have taken new favourites like Japanese showman Motomu Sakai to their hearts.

    We've also had Cameron Menzies apologising for punching a drinks table after being eliminated by rising English star Charlie Manby.

    And there have been those wasps, which have taken centre stage quite often in the first nine days at Alexandra Palace. Jurjen van der Velde resorted to bug spray to try to combat them - to little effect.

  4. This evening's fixturespublished at 19:03 GMT 19 December 2025

    Here's what's coming up tonight:

    • William O'Connor v Krzysztof Kciuk
    • Daryl Gurney v Beau Greaves
    • Nathan Aspinall v Lourence Ilagan
    • Keane Barry v Tim Pusey
  5. Postpublished at 19:00 GMT 19 December 2025

    Welcome. It's time for the final session of the first round at the PDC World Darts Championship.

    Tonight, Beau Greaves looks to become the second woman to win a game at the Worlds when she takes on Daryl Gurney.

    Nathan Aspinall also begins his tournament this evening, playing Lourence Ilagan.

    Fans in the crowd at Alexandra PalaceImage source, Getty Images