Former champion Rob Cross and Dave Chisnall crashed out of the PDC world championship as more seeds were scattered at Alexandra Palace.
Cross, the fifth seed and 2018 champion, lost 3-1 to Scott Williams while Ricky Evans survived a match dart against him to upset Chisnall, the sixth seed, in an epic second-round clash decided by a sudden-death leg.
Having beaten the world No 6, Nathan Aspinall, at the same venue 12 months ago, Evans held his nerve to win 3-2 after both players had missed match darts to set up a third-round meeting with Welshman Robert Owen.
“I’ve played a world class darts player and it’s nice to say I’ve won a game and played well. Normally it’s poo,” Evans said. “What am I doing the other 11 months of the year?” Almost unable to accept his status as a crowd favourite, Evans said: “I don’t get this treatment in my household. Why are they cheering me on – ‘Ricky Evans, Ricky Evans’ – I don’t understand it.
“I kept telling them to shut up. I’m trying to win a game here, but they were getting louder and louder. But thank you very much, you’ve made a fat guy very happy.”
Chisnall took the first set in style and seemed on course to maintain his record of having not lost a first round match at the world championship since 2018. But he missed double five for the second set and Evans pounced to forge a 2-1 lead. Chisnall levelled but was fortunate as Evans just missed the bullseye to take the final set 4-2.
It was Evans who had to hold his breath after Chisnall broke and had double top for the match. But Chisnall could not take his chance and Evans, throwing first in the sudden-death decider, held on to send the crowd wild.
In the final match of the night Cross took the first set but fellow Englishman Williams rolled off the next three sets as a gruelling evening session finished less than 20 minutes before midnight.
Jonny Clayton won a sudden-death leg in the deciding set to edge past Mickey Mansell and book his place in the third round. Mansell, who impressed on his run to the semi-finals of the Grand Slam of Darts, had claimed the opening set against the darts as Clayton was made to pay for missed doubles.
The Welshman, though, stormed back to rattle off six straight legs – including a 100 checkout with a tops-tops finish – and led 2-1 before Mansell levelled matters at 2-2. Mansell then landed successive monster finishes of 136 and 154 to seemingly leave Clayton, the seventh seed, on the brink of a shock early exit. But Clayton forced a winner-takes-all leg – which, with the advantage of throwing first, he eventually wrapped up on double five after a sapping encounter which lasted more than an hour.
Clayton will meet Daryl Gurney next after the Northern Irishman came from behind to beat Florian Hempel 3-2 in a pulsating affair. Gurney, the No 26 seed, levelled the match with a 156 checkout and recovered from being 2-1 adrift after Hempel had claimed a third-set whitewash.
Hempel’s fellow German Ricardo Pietreczko produced a clinical finishing display – hitting 56% of his doubles – to beat the 28th seed, Gian van Veen, 3-1 while the PDC Asian Tour leader, Alexis Toylo, lost 3-1 to Krzysztof Ratajski and the 18th seed, Josh Rock, coasted to a 3-0 victory over Welsh debutant Rhys Griffin.
Meanwhile, the former UK Open champion Andrew Gilding threw six maximums as he beat Grand Slam of Darts runner-up, Martin Lukeman, 3-1 to reach the third round for the first time.
