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MICHAEL VAN GERWEN’s second reign as World Darts Champion was ended by Rob Cross in an amazing semi-final battle at London’s Alexandra Palace, where several MODUS-represented players made their mark on a thrilling tournament. 

Read reports and reaction on Van Gerwen’s campaign at michaelvangerwen.com

Van Gerwen had defeated Christian Kist, James Wilson, Gerwyn Price and Raymond Van Barneveld in his bid to win a third World Championship title but suffered a dramatic defeat at the hands of Rob Cross, who capitalised on six missed match-darts from the Dutchman to set up a final against Phil Taylor.

The 2018 William Hill World Championship was a good tournament for Keegan Brown, Steve West, Vincent van der Voort and John Henderson.

Brown took the scalp of James Wade in round one before defeating Austria’s Zoran Lerchbacher to reach the last 16 for the first time in his career. There, he lost to 16-time World Champion Taylor.

West claimed his first ever World Championship win when he saw off Benito Van de Pas. He also progressed to the third round after a comfortable victory against Jermaine Wattimena before being denied a quarter-final place by double World Champion Gary Anderson.

Van der Voort shocked eighth seed Dave Chisnall in his opener with a whitewash win, which he followed up with another straight sets triumph against Steve Beaton. The Dutchman lost out to his compatriot Van Barneveld in the last 16.

Henderson followed up his run to the semi-finals of the World Grand Prix with one to the last 16 of the World Championship, beating Marko Kantele in round one before stunning number four seed Daryl Gurney. The Scotsman’s run was ended by Cross.

Simon Whitlock reached the second round after beating Germany’s Martin Schindler but was knocked out by Darren Webster.

Robert Thornton also reached round two, where he was denied further progress by Mensur Suljovic after prevailing over Brendan Dolan in his opener.

There were debut defeats for newcomers Richard North and Luke Humphries, for whom qualifying for the tournament was a remarkable achievement in the infancy of their professional careers.