Limerick's William O'Connor learns PDC World Darts Championship draw at ‘Ally Pally’

LIMERICK arrowsmith William O’Connor will face Dutch opponent, Yordi Meeuwisse, in the opening round of the 2018/2019  William Hill World Darts Championship in London next month.

The draw for the 2018/2019 William Hill World Darts Championship was made this Monday for darts' biggest-ever event, which will see 96 players compete from December 13-January 1 for stg£2.5 million in prize money and the Sid Waddell Trophy live on Sky Sports.

Should Cappamore man O’Connor come through his opening round tie at Alexandra Palace, he will face number 26 seed James Wilson in the second round of the prestigious event.

The schedule for the match which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports will be revealed later this week.

Thirty two-year-old O’Connor has a PDC world ranking of 50 and made his debut at the World Championships at the 'Ally Pally' last December.

O'Connor reached the Players Championship Finals for the first time in November 2017 where he enjoyed a run to the last 16.

In July of this year, O'Connor reached the final of the European Darts Matchplay, losing 8-2 to Michael van Gerwen in the final.

O’Connor defeated World Champion Rob Cross and two of darts biggest names in Kim Huybrechts and Mensur Suljovic to reach the European Matchplay final in Hamburg, Germany.

O’Connor also recorded impressive victories over Martin Atkins and Andy Boulton in the semi-final to advance to his first ever PDC ranking final where he lost to two-time PDC World Champion Van Gerwen.

Limerickman O’Connor also stunned PDC world champion Michael van Gerwen at the Dutch Darts Championship with a 6-1 victory in the second round of the competition in Maastricht in September.

2018 William Hill World Darts Championship

Draw Bracket

Seeded Players Enter In Second Round

(1) Michael van Gerwen v Alan Tabern/Raymond Smith

(32) Max Hopp v Danny Noppert/Royden Lam

(16) Adrian Lewis v Simon Stevenson/Ted Evetts

(17) Raymond van Barneveld v Matthew Edgar/Darius Labanauskas

(8) Simon Whitlock v Ryan Joyce/Anastasia Dobromyslova

(25) Alan Norris v Steve Lennon/James Bailey

(9) James Wade v Krzysztof Ratajski/Seigo Asada

(24) Jelle Klaasen v Keegan Brown/Karel Sedlacek

(5) Daryl Gurney v Ross Smith/Paul Lim

(28) Jamie Lewis v Martin Schindler/Cody Harris

(12) Dave Chisnall v Josh Payne/Jeff Smith

(21) Kim Huybrechts v Robert Thornton/Daniel Larsson

(4) Gary Anderson v Paul Nicholson/Kevin Burness

(29) Jermaine Wattimena v Michael Barnard/Jose De Sousa

(13) Darren Webster v Vincent van der Voort/Lourence Ilagan

(20) Steve Beaton v Chris Dobey/Boris Koltsov

(2) Rob Cross v Jeffrey de Zwaan/Nitin Kumar

(31) Cristo Reyes v Ricky Evans/Rowby-John Rodriguez

(15) Jonny Clayton v Dimitri Van den Bergh/Chuck Puleo

(18) Stephen Bunting v Luke Humphries/Adam Hunt

(7) Mensur Suljovic v Ryan Searle/Stephen Burton

(26) James Wilson v William O'Connor/Yordi Meeuwisse

(10) Michael Smith v Ron Meulenkamp/Diogo Portela

(23) John Henderson v Gabriel Clemens/Aden Kirk

(6) Gerwyn Price v Nathan Aspinall/Geert Nentjes

(27) Kyle Anderson v Jeffrey de Graaf/Noel Malicdem

(11) Ian White v Wayne Jones/Devon Petersen

(22) Steve West v Richard North/Robert Marijanovic

(3) Peter Wright v Toni Alcinas/Craig Ross

(30) Benito van de Pas v Mickey Mansell/Jim Long

(14) Joe Cullen v Brendan Dolan/Yuanjun Liu

(19) Mervyn King v Jan Dekker/Lisa Ashton