World Darts Championship: Gerwyn Price made to sweat on opening night; Adrian Lewis through | Darts News

For the first time in almost two years, a full crowd graced the iconic Alexandra Palace to witness the world’s biggest darts event; the festive feast runs through to the final on Wednesday, January 3, with 96 players from around the world competing for £2.5million in prize money

Defending champion Gerwyn Price received a frosty reception on his World Championship return, but despite being given a scare by underdog Ritchie Edhouse, the world No 1 stumbled through on opening night at Alexandra Palace.

Price, who is bidding to join Phil Taylor, Gary Anderson and Adrian Lewis as back-to-back PDC World Champions, found himself on the ropes early on before turning on the afterburners to come through in four sets.

Two-time world champion Adrian Lewis set up a mouth-watering clash with Gary Anderson after he came from a set down to defeat Matt Campbell, while Ricky Evans eased through, finishing with 56 per cent on his doubles and a 96.20 three-dart average, to beat Nitin Kumar.

World No 80 Edhouse came through a hard-fought battle with Peter Hudson, to set up a meeting with Welshman Price, and he came out firing some huge numbers.

The Hastings thrower, who returned to the PDC Pro Tour this year, whitewashed ‘The Iceman’ to seal the opening set.

A below-par Price let out his famous roar after winning the third leg of the second set, but an inspired Edhouse pinned 106 to send it in to a decider. However, Price dug deep with an 86 checkout to square things up.

Edhouse won the opening two legs of the third set, but Price clawed his way back to level up before taking a 2-1 lead with a blistering 130 on the bullseye.

And the 36-year-old, who took the glory 12 months ago, pinned a second 130 finish on his way to a spot in the third round and a potential showdown with Fallon Sherrock.

An eagerly-anticipated first session saw back-to-back world champion Lewis up against Canadian ace Campbell.

Campbell, appearing at Ally Pally for the third successive year, saw a two-leg lead quickly evaporate to Lewis, but ‘GinjaNinja’ stayed calm to edge the first set with a 66 finish with ‘Jackpot’ sat on top.

Lewis, making his 17th appearance at the Worlds, swept through the second set without reply to level things up.

Stoke-on-Trent thrower Lewis nailed a clutch 108 checkout to send the third set into a deciding leg and he pinned tops to edge towards victory.

The drama continued into the fifth leg of set four as Lewis struck a well-timed maximum before sealing victory with his third match dart.

Speedster Evans came through in straight sets against India’s Kumar to set up a tasty second-round encounter against Daryl Gurney.

‘The Royal Bengal’ was given a lesson in high-speed finishing from Evans, who landed the first big checkout of the tournament – a 167 (T20, T19, Bullseye) to clinch the opening set.

‘Rapid’ Ricky was not hanging around as he raced into a 2-0 lead with finishes of tops, 60 and 68 and it was soon job done when the Kettering thrower threw a 130 finish to progress.

Join us for the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace on Sky Sports across 16 days of action. Check out daily Darts news on skysports.com/darts, our app for mobile devices and our Twitter account @skysportsdarts