Brendan Dolan through to last 16 at Alexandra Palace

Northern Irishman beats Mervyn King at the PDC World Darts Championship

Northern Ireland’s Brendan Dolan celebrates during his third-round match against England’s Mervyn King at the PDC World Darts Championship at the Alexandra Palace in London. Photograph: Alex Burstow/Getty Images

Northern Ireland's Brendan Dolan is through to the fourth round of the PDC World Darts Championship for the first time after knocking out 19th seed Mervyn King at the Alexandra Palace in London.

Twice a semi-finalist, King had battled back to level the match at 2-2 following a 14-dart finish.

However, Enniskillen’s Dolan responded to break King and take the fifth set on a decider before closing out a 4-2 victory with a 95.73 average.

Dolan, who saw off 14th seed Joe Cullen in round two, will play either Benito Van De Pas or Toni Alcinas for a place in the last eight.

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Ninth seed James Wade produced a fine comeback to beat Keegan Brown 4-3 and secure his place in the last 16.

Englishman Wade had apologised for controversial post-match comments that he “wanted to really hurt” Japanese opponent Seigo Asada after his previous victory at the Alexandra Palace, blaming his actions on a “hypomanic episode”.

Despite enduring a hostile reception from large sections of the crowd and having found himself facing another stern test as Brown moved into a 3-1 lead, there was no repeat of any such outburst.

Wade eventually found his range to take the fifth set 3-0 and went on to progress in the decider against the player who had ended his world title hopes last year.

The 35-year-old from Aldershot will face the impressive Ryan Joyce for a quarter-final place.

In Sunday’s early match, Chris Dobey battled through 4-3 against Vincent Van der Voort.

After the first four sets went with throw, Dutchman Van der Voort broke twice to lead 3-2.

However, Englishman Dobey recovered with a flawless set to force a decider, and progressed with a 97.87 average to set up a fourth-round match against number-four seed Gary Anderson.