Pride of Wales up for grabs as Price battles Clayton at World Grand Prix

Welsh bragging rights and a place in the World Grand Prix semi-finals will be up for grabs when Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton meet in Leicester on Friday night.

World No 4 Price is one spot ahead of Clayton in the PDC Order of Merit and will extend his lead over his compatriot – and World Cup of Darts partner – if he wins their game.

However, if Clayton, battling to qualify for the Grand Slam of Darts in November, is victorious, and then goes on to lift the title on Sunday, he will usurp the Iceman as Wales’ top-ranked player.

Price leads the pair’s head-to-head 30-15 and won their last meeting earlier this month – an 11-7 success in the semi-finals of the World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam.

But the 41-year-old was “smashed up”, to use his words, by The Ferret in the World Grand Prix final in 2021, with Clayton romping to a 5-1 success.

Price, who picked up the World Cup title with Clayton in 2020 and 2023, said: “I know how good Jonny can play, I know how bad he can play. I know how good and how bad I can play.

It would be nice to have another [major] under my belt. I am always chasing, I never give up. I always say, ‘if I don’t win today, I will try again tomorrow’.
“When I’m up on that stage, I love every second of it, and that’s all that counts. I think when the day comes that I don’t enjoy it, then I’m in trouble.

“I just need to take my opportunities. If I can start well, score in between and put Jonny under pressure, I think I will come through but it’s going to be a real tough one.

“It’s special for Wales regardless of who wins the game. We’re going to have a Welshman in the semi-final of another massive major.”

Clayton added: “There’s banter between me and Gezzy. Every time he gets to Welsh No 1, he sends me a flag with a No 1 on. We’re good friends, world number 4 and 5. You can’t fault that from Wales!”

Clayton scrapped through his first-round match against Krzysztof Ratajski 2-1 – Price joking that his countryman got “lucky” – but then slammed in four-ton plus finishes, including three in the first set, as he saw off the improving Wessel Nijman 3-1.

Price is yet to drop a set in the tournament, first sweeping past Sebastian Bialecki 2-0 and then thumping Ross Smith 3-0 as he gained revenge for his defeat to ‘Smudger’ in the recent World Series of Darts final in the Netherlands.

The all-Cymru clash between Price and Clayton is joined on Friday’s schedule by Luke Humphries versus Niels Zonneveld, James Wade vs Gian van Veen and Nathan Aspinall vs Ryan Joyce.

‘If I think I am going to win easy, I will fail’

Zonneveld, who has dumped out Josh Rock and Gary Anderson, is the lowest-ranked player left in the event at world No 35 but second seed Humphries will not be overlooking the Dutchman, especially after being upset by the unseeded Mike De Decker in the 2024 final.

Humphries, eyeing a second Grand Prix title after victory in 2023 said: “One thing this tournament teaches you is not to take anyone for granted. If I think because Niels is whatever ranking he is that I’m going to win the game easy, I will fail.

“He’s playing good darts and could be the Mike De Decker story. I will treat him with the respect I would every player, the respect he deserves.

On what winning his first major since the 2025 Premier League – and eighth overall – would mean to him, Humphries added: “When you have experienced that achievement of winning a lot and then it all goes away for 12 months, when you get that experience of winning again it feels even sweeter.

“I have worked really hard over the last 12 months and not got the rewards so winning would do me good, boost my confidence.

“Because I’m not picking up one or two majors a year, people think you are not as good as you used to be but I feel I am playing better than ever. I still feel there is another level in me. I’m just trying to find where that comes from.”

‘ChatGPT tells Joyce he is on the right track’

The unassuming Joyce is, along with Zonneveld, an outsider to lift the trophy, particularly with the way his last-eight opponent Aspinall hammered in eight 180s on Wednesday night in his rout of Luke Littler’s conqueror Luke Woodhouse.

Joyce, though, is a master on double 16 and realises this double-in, double-out tournament likely represents his best chance of winning a major – the Geordie made the semi-finals in 2024 before being brushed aside by Humphries.

‘Relentless’, who has seen off six-time Grand Prix champion Michael van Gerwen and Danny Noppert so far, has also been buoyed by AI telling him he is on the right track.

He said: “I think I was just bored one night, and I thought, ‘I’ll put ChatGPT on and say I’ve got a big game coming up. Have you got any tips on how I can handle it better?’

“The AI programme gave me a list of lots of different things to do, and I thought to myself, ‘well, actually, I already do most of that, I already think like that, I’ve actually taught myself that from my own experience of being a professional for so many years’.

“That gave me a little boost, so I’ll just continue with what I’m doing. I don’t need anybody’s help. I’m just going to do it myself.”

Aspinall, however, says Joyce’s hopes will come crashing down if he replicates his display against Woodhouse.

“Joyce is unreal on his double 16 but he can’t score like me – and he knows that. If I score like I did [in round two], he’s not going to beat me, simple as that.”

Watch the World Grand Prix quarter-finals live on Sky Sports+ and Sky Sports Main Event from 7pm on Friday. There is live coverage of the tournament every day up to and including Sunday’s final. Latest Sky Sports deals or stream with no contract with NOW.

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