‘I just played terribly’ – Peter Wright flops out of World Darts Championship at first hurdle

Peter Wright could not find anything like his best form against Jim Williams (Picture: Getty Images)

Two-time champion Peter Wright was beaten 3-0 in his opening match of the 2024 World Darts Championship by Welshman Jim Williams on Wednesday night.

Snakebite finished with an average of just 83.87 and a checkout percentrage of only 22.22 per cent in a performance that was startling poor for a man of his ability.

It has been a poor season for Wright and Williams winning is not the greatest upset of all time, but the performance from the Scot was a long, long way below par.

The former world number one won just four legs over the match, with Williams’ average of 90.45 enough to secure a comfortable victory.

‘To be honest I don’t know what happened,’ said Wright. ‘Obviously I was nowhere near good enough to compete against Jim Williams, who is a fantastic player.

‘I haven’t got a clue, practice has been going well but I don’t know what happened. Jim was the better player on the day.

‘Maybe it would have been a different game if I’d hit one of the doubles to win the second set but I didn’t feel confident of actually getting it to be honest; it was “hopefully I hit it” rather than “this one’s going in”.

‘I just played terribly tonight and that’s it.’

Jim Williams didn’t need to hit the heights to win the match comfortably (Picture: Getty Images)

Williams told Sky Sports: ‘It’s a difficult game. I’ve got so much respect for that man. I was fighting myself all the way there a little bit.’

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‘Probably down to respect, trying too hard, there’s loads of things. I was getting a double when I needed to, I guess that’s the name of the game.

‘It’s a little bit frustrating, but we’ll get there.’

Williams now faces either Dutch legend Raymond van Barneveld or Poland’s Radek Szaganski in the third round.

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