Luke Humphries has offered his condolences to Wayne Mardle (Image: GETTY)
The 2024-25 is upon us at Ally Pally after the tournament got underway on Sunday. But there was some sad news on day one with Sky Sports commentator Wayne Mardle absent due to .
The popular Mardle’s wife Donna died at the age of 52 due to a short illness last week and he is now expected to miss the entire tournament.
The darting world has rallied around Mardle in response to his tragedy with Sky Sports presenter Emma Paton saying: “We will be remembering Donna throughout this tournament. Wayne, you are in our thoughts, in our hearts, we love you very much and we will see you very soon.”
The tournament takes place from December 15 to Friday January 3 with the customary three-break from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day as well as a night off for New Year’s Eve.
The Worlds starts off with 96 competitors and will be narrowed down to two finalists for the prestigious £2.5million prize, with reigning world champion Luke Humphries having already started strong.
Express Sport provides updates from day two of the World Darts Championship below…
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KEY EVENTS
- 08:10
- 08:03
Day two Ally Pally schedule
So what’ve we got lined up today?
We’ve got our first afternoon session of the tournament at 12.30pm…
Afternoon Session (12.30pm)
3x First Round, 1x Second Round
Wesley Plaisier vs Ryusei Azemoto R1
Luke Woodhouse vs Lourence Ilagan R1
Alan Soutar vs Kai Gotthardt R1
James Wade vs Jermaine Wattimena R2
Evening Session (7pm)
3x First Round, 1x Second Round
Niels Zonneveld vs Robert Owen R1
Connor Scutt vs Ben Robb R1
Cameron Menzies vs Leonard Gates R1
Gerwyn Price vs Huybrechts/Barry R2
Emma Paton’s emotional Wayne Mardle message
A visibly emotional Emma Paton fought back tears as she paid tribute to Wayne Mardle and his wife Donna.
Paton, 30, announced on Sky Sports on Sunday night that Wayne’s long-time partner had passed away after illness.
She said: “
Now, if you are a regular viewer of Sky Sports Darts you’ll notice that Wayne isn’t here with us this evening.
“Wayne is the heart and soul of everything we do here at Sky Sports Darts.
“But the heart of his world, his wonderful wife Donna sadly passed away earlier this week after a short illness.
“We’ll be remembering Donna throughout this tournament. Wayne, you’re in our thoughts. You’re in our hearts.
“We love you very much. And we’ll see you very soon.”
Sky Sports would like to send their thoughts, prayers and condolences to our commentator Wayne Mardle, following the passing of his wife Donna earlier this week.
u2014 Sky Sports Darts (@SkySportsDarts)
Luke Humphries sends message to Wayne Mardle
Luke Humphries has shown his class and vowed to send Wayne Mardle a personal message after the death of his wife.
Speaking after winning last night, the world No.1 said: “I didn’t know her, but I’ve seen her before.
“My condolonces to Wayne, he is one of the top, top guys in the world and no one deserves to go through this.
“He has been with Donna since he has been 14 years old, so it is a horrible, horrible thing for him to go through.
“Hopefully he knows all the players and the fans and everyone is here from him if he needs.
“Hopefully he can take his time away and reflect on the woman she was.
“I’ll send him a personal message myself, but I wanted to give him a bit of time to just come to terms with what has happened and hopefully he is OK.”
Results on day one
Reigning world champion Luke Humphries needed less than 16 minutes to see off Frenchman Thibault Tricole to get off to a winning start last night.
“It was nowhere near my best, but it is two different tournaments, all that matters is to win tonight,” he said.
“If I’d have averaged 105 and lost it would have meant nothing. Now I can go into the second part of the tournament after Christmas.
“Even if I don’t win again I will be proud of the year I have, but it would be a beautiful way to top it off if I could become back-to-back world champion.
“But I have five games to get through.”
Here were the full results from day one…
Round one: Thibault Tricole 3-1 Joe Comito
Round one: Jermaine Wattimena 3-0 Stefan Bellmont
Round one: Kim Huybrechts 1-3 Keane Barry
Round two: Luke Humphries 3-0 Thibault Tricole
Luke Humphries wins NINE consecutive legs and breezes through to the third round! ud83dude4c
— Sky Sports Darts (@SkySportsDarts)
Good morning!
Good morning!
Welcome to Express Sport’s live blog on day two of the World Darts Championship.