World No 63 wins 4-3 to claim biggest victory of his career
Luke Littler eases past Mensur Suljovic 4-0 in round three
By the end, the room had gone still and quiet. The air was warm and smelled faintly of spilled pints. The chants of “One Stephen Bunting” had long since died away, and all that was left was one Stephen Bunting: three darts in his hand and no more tricks up his sleeve. No place left to run.
And so as James Hurrell pinned tops to win 4-3 and claim the biggest victory of his life, there was just the merest whiff of anticlimax to it all: a seismic shock that also somehow felt like the most natural thing in the world. The crowds dispersed with barely a murmur. Hurrell packed up his darts and left the stage: not overawed or overcome, but bearing the immense calmness of a man who had seen this all coming in advance.
Perhaps he was the only one who had. Certainly nothing the 41-year-old from the Cotswolds has achieved in his two years on tour suggested he was capable of this performance, on this stage, in this tournament. There was a promising run to the last 16 of the Players Championship finals last month. Some promising runs on the floor. An assured disposal of Dirk van Duijvenbode in the second round here. But he was the world No 63 for a reason.
