Our Michael Yiakoumi with darts fans going to Alexandra Palace.

Defending champion Michael van Gerwen and former winner Gary Anderson reached the last 16 of the PDC World Championship in London.

Dutch top seed Van Gerwen beat James Wilson 4-0 to set up a meeting with Wales’ Gerwyn Price.

Scotland’s Anderson marked his 47th birthday with a 4-1 win over Singapore’s Paul Lim, who missed double 12 for a nine-dart finish.

Lim threw the first nine-dart finish at the World Championship in 1990.

“I should have worn my high heels – maybe then I would have hit it,” 63-year-old Lim said of his ninth dart in the third leg of the second set.

“I will have nightmares tonight because I just wanted to do it.”

Anderson will face England’s Steve West or Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena for a place in the quarter-finals.

“Paul is a gentleman and is still a classy dart player,” said Anderson. “I have so much respect for him and if he had taken out that nine-darter, that would have been the best Christmas present for me too.”

Van Gerwen was never troubled against 32nd seed Wilson, winning 12 consecutive legs in a match where he averaged 108.65.

“I will have a happy Christmas – everything is good,” Van Gerwen said.

“You are here to win and the only thing in your mind should be to win. In this tournament they have to be at a different level to beat me.”

Price beat Ian White 4-1 to book his place in the last 16.

Fifth seed Mensur Suljovic, the Champions League of Darts winner, beat Scotland’s Robert Thornton 4-2, completing victory with a 121 checkout and a bullseye.

Austrian Suljovic will next face Belgium’s Dimitri van Bergh, the 2007 youth champion who beat Dutchman Jan Dekker 4-2.

Dekker’s compatriot Vincent van der Voortadvanced by beating Steve Beaton 4-0.