Paul Lim follows his 180 with 100, while Luke Humphries chucks 97.

Lim however can't keep up the pace, as Humphries arrows in a second maximum in three visits.

With single 12 and D16, Humphries breaks with a 12-dart leg.

Paul Lim opens the match with a 180!

And Luke Humphries responds in kind!

Told you this could be good.

A really good reception for second seed and former champion Luke Humphries too.

This could be a clash for the ages.

Image source, PA Media

A very warm welcome to the Ally Pally stage for Paul Lim.

Five decades a professional, still winning at the top level aged 71. What an icon.

When you are still playing a sport competitively at the age of 71, you will inevitably be asked how much longer you will keep playing for.

"I don't know when but, if I ever wake up one day and say 'oh, I've got to go and play darts again', that's when I'll quit," said Paul Lim in an interview with BBC Sport before tonight's match.

"But I know it's not that way right now because days and weeks before a tournament is coming up, I get pumped and I'm excited.

"If I'm still excited about it, I won't quit."

And when the time comes, what will be Lim's legacy?

"I want to be remembered as a very loveable darts player."

Paul Lim met Englishman Luke Humphries in the first round of the 2021 World Championship (pictured) and, on that occasion, Lim was a 3-2 winner.

The odds of a repeat are unlikely, given Humphries - who is 41 years younger than Lim - has gone on to have a spell of nearly two years as world number one and won multiple major titles, including the world crown in January 2024.

"If anything, I'm thankful for Paul winning that game because it changed me as a player and it changed me as a person," Humphries said after beating Ted Evetts in round one.

"Three months later, I'd lost about four stones and I was in a major final [at the 2021 UK Open]. It helped my career."

On those comments, Lim told BBC Sport: "To come across a champion who is as humble as him - when he said that, it was really a compliment to me. I've got nothing ever bad to say about Luke.

"With every defeat or every win, there is a spark somewhere - you've got to find it to spark you in the right direction. I can't say that loss made him a world champion, but maybe it created that spark within himself to look at something differently and it turned out well for him.

"He is definitely a different Luke Humphries. He was good then, now he is great. It's an honour to hear him calling me a legend."

Image source, Getty Images

Glen Durrant
Former Premier League champion on BBC Radio 5 Live

Paul Lim, during the Covid-affected championship, came from 2-0 down to beat Luke Humphries, and afterwards Humphries decided to look at his technique and to lose weight. Then he won everything.

The Lim story is fantastic - 71 years old and still winning on that Ally Pally stage, it's absolutely fantastic. But I expect Humphries to showcase his talents.

Here, Paul Lim relives becoming the first player to hit a nine-dart finish at a World Championship in 1990.

At this year's tournament, the 71-year-old's first-round win over Sweden's Jeffrey de Graaf made him the oldest player ever to win a match at the PDC World Championship.

Paul Lim, 71, said he "never had any doubt" he would still be playing at this age, telling BBC Sport: "My passion for my darting career and the sport of darts itself - I've always enjoyed it.

"The passion makes me want to play, to practice and to commit to the level that I think I can actually even be better.

"Darts is not a sport where you need to be really strong. All you need is to basically be healthy. Longevity is something in darts that will be longer than a lot of other sports."

Lim first played at a World Championship in 1982 and qualified for his first PDC World Championship since 2022 via the PDC's Asian Tour.

Nathan Aspinall only found a highest checkout of 80 and converted just nine of 23 checkouts. Improvement needed.

But he can now relax over Christmas - unlike Luke Humphries and Paul Lim, whose blockbuster showdown comes next.

Image source, Getty Images

John Part
Former PDC world champion on Sky Sports

A good performance from Nathan. He lost the first legs of the first couple of sets but he never let that get into his mind and managed to wrap up every set in four legs.

Super stuff, his timing was good and that led to some good numbers for him.

Buried in D16. Job done.

Nathan Aspinall sees off a tricky opponent, and will face in-form Kevin Doets after Christmas.

No dice from Aspinall with a 60 finish, but Gates can't find 141.

So now the Asp needs 80 - and he goes 5, 25... no bull.

Gates has an arrow at D6 to make Aspinall throw again - well wide!

Aspinall needs 42.

Image source, PA Media

Nathan Aspinall opens this potentially clinching leg with a 180. He wants this match done and gone.

Another T20... then single one! What a way to ruin a potential nine-darter, Aspinall is livid.

But Gates can't make a finish, Aspinall needs 140...

Nathan Aspinall is unimpressed as an attempted 130 checkout is scuppered by an arrow in T5.

But Gates is well off the pace in this leg, allowing the 15th seed to tee up and move himself one leg from round three.

John Part
Former PDC world champion on Sky Sports

Every big name that goes, all of the other big names perk up a bit, even if they're not in the same section of the draw.

You just like to see the potential trophy holders go out of the tournament. If you are still in it, you are a potential trophy holder in your estimation.

At last, Leonard Gates hits his first 180 of the match! Having already struck eight 140s.

In fact, that's an 11-dart hold from Gates. Signs of life from the American.

Nathan Aspinall has averaged a little over 94 so far. Good enough.

He throws first in set three - hold throw and he's safely into the post-Christmas competition.

And though Gates is first to a finish, the American comes nowhere near to 132 which allows the Englishman to clean up.

Leonard Gates hit just one of seven attempts at doubles in set two. It is not as if the American has lacked chances.

He stayed on stage during the interval - perhaps rueing those misses?