Gerwyn Price thrives off crowd support to ease through at PDC World Championship | PDC World Championships

Gerwyn Price romped to a 3-0 win against Adam Gawlas to ease into the second round of the world championship on Tuesday.

Price, who was roared on by the the crowd at Alexandra Palace, bagged six 180s before closing out the win with his second 120 checkout of the evening. Despite missing 17 of his 26 attempts at doubles, he scored a 96.44 average to set up a second-round meeting with Wesley Plaisier.

“I don’t usually get this [crowd support], so thank you very much,” he told Sky Sports. “The fans have been great for me the last 18 months, two years, and to come here and get the support like I have, as you can hear now, still they’re chanting my name.

“Honestly, if I win the million [first prize], it’s not going to change my life, but I want to win trophies. I want to be back in the top four in the world and be where I think I deserve. As long these are where they are with me, I think I can win everything, so thank you very much.”

Danny Noppert recovered from a slow start to produce a fine win against Jurjen van der Velde, finally triumphing 3-1 after the fourth set. In a strong finish he threw four perfect darts at the start of the final leg to get down to 47 after nine darts.

Van der Velde had arrived on stage with a can of insect spray after issues on Monday with a wasp at the venue but it was not enough to keep him in contention, Noppert missing two match darts in the final leg before claiming victory.

Ricardo Pietreczko saw off the impressive José de Sousa 3-1 to seal his place in the second round, while Joe Comito upset Niko Springer 3-1 in the last match to finish.

Chris Dobey shrugged off an early scare to reach the second round of the world championship with a 3-1 win against China’s Zong Xiaochen at Alexandra Palace.

Another former semi-finalist, Scott Williams, cruised into the second round with a 3-0 win against Paolo Nebrida of the Philippines, while Justin Hood whitewashed the Welshman Nick Kenny.

In an epic opener, Alan Soutar missed no fewer than 15 match darts before finally seeing off Finland’s Teemu Harju in a sudden-death leg. Soutar missed his first 10 darts for the match in the fourth set, which Harju eventually won to continue his recovery from two sets down.

Harju missed four match darts himself when he led 3-2 in the deciding set, before Dundee’s Soutar held his nerve to take out double 16 at his 16th attempt.