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Champion Gerwyn Price set up a quarter-final meeting against Michael Smith at the PDC World Darts Championship.

Afterwards, Price said he had “spoke a little bit too soon” after calling for the tournament to be postponed following Covid-19 withdrawals.

It could have been an all-Welsh quarter-final but eighth seed Jonny Clayton was beaten 4-3 by Smith in a thriller that went to a tie-break.

Clayton, 47, won the first two sets of the match but England’s Smith, 31, came back by winning the next three.

Premier League champion Clayton made a superb 161 bullseye checkout to break Smith’s throw in the sixth leg followed by a 105 finish to break again and level the match at 3-3, taking it to a deciding leg.

In the final set it went to 4-4 in legs before ninth seed Smith broke Clayton’s throw and kept his cool to take the 10th leg to win the match.

Earlier in the evening, Scotland’s two-time world champion Gary Anderson reached the fourth round after coming back from 3-0 down to beat England’s Ian White 4-3 and book a meeting with 2018 champion Rob Cross.

‘Hard work to get these tournaments on’

Price made his call for the tournament to be postponed after David Chisnall became the third player to withdraw after a positive test for Covid-19, following three-time champion Michael van Gerwen and fellow Dutch player Vincent van der Voort.

“I probably spoke a little bit too soon. It’s hard to work to get these tournaments on. The PDC and everybody else involved, they do a fantastic job,” said Price, who won 12 legs on the bounce and four consecutive sets against Van Duijvenbode.

“It needs to be finished. If it did get postponed, then I’d agree. I agree with this carrying on as it is hard work to get these tournaments underway.

“I just felt sorry for the boys who had gone out. I know what it is like. Obviously me going out of the Premier League, especially in this event, which you play all year for.

“It’s this one, this is the main one, and Michael [van Gerwen] is defending a final, £200,000 ranking points. It’s sad that you see those boys go out. A difficult situation but you have to try to deal with it the best you can,” added the world champion.

On Wednesday, Danny Noppert announced he had also tested positive for Covid-19. The Dutchman lost to England’s Ryan Searle on Tuesday and is the fifth player involved in the tournament to have tested positive.

Soutar and Rydz secure progress

Wednesday afternoon’s session featured two third-round matches at London’s Alexandra Palace, as Jose de Sousa faced Alan Soutar and Nathan Aspinall played Callan Rydz.

Soutar combines playing darts with his job as a firefighter – and returned to work after his second-round win over Mensur Suljovic, before coming back to take on De Sousa.

And the Scot beat the world number seven, of Portugal, 4-3, sealing his victory with a 136 checkout.

Rydz was in impressive form as he dominated 10th seed Aspinall on the way to a 4-0 win and the 23-year-old is yet to drop a set at the tournament this year.

Thursday schedule of play – Fourth round matches

Afternoon

Raymond Smith (Aus) v Mervyn King (Eng)

Alan Soutar (Sco) v Callan Rydz (Eng)

Chris Dobey (Eng) v Luke Humphries (Eng)

Evening

James Wade (Eng) v Martijn Kleermaker (Ned)

Anderson (Sco) v Rob Cross (Eng)

Peter Wright (Sco) v Ryan Searle (Eng)