New Zealand Darts Masters: Stephen Bunting dumped out by Raymond Smith in sensational fashion

Smith reeled off five unanswered legs en route to a 6-2 victory over third seed Bunting, averaging 99.81 and converting 86 per cent of his attempts at a double and notably sealing victory with a 124 checkout on the bullseye.

"It feels pretty awesome," Smith said. "Eight years since I last played on a PDC stage, so I'm pretty stoked.

"I think I played really well. What we're doing in the ADA, DPNZ and ANZ Premier League is setting us up for this sort of stuff. What the PDC is investing in the Oceanic region is showing in the results."

Smith's reward for beating Bunting is a quarter-final tie against fellow Australian Adam Leek, who survived six match darts against Ross Smith before securing victory in a last-leg decider on his dramatic World Series of Darts debut.

Top seed Gian van Veen averaged more than 97 in a 6-1 demolition of New Zealand's World Cup star Jonny Tata.

The Dutch No 1 will now take on 2022 runner-up Jonny Clayton in the last eight after the Welshman overturned a 4-2 deficit to defeat home favourite Haupai Puha.

Gerwyn Price, the 2022 champion, breezed past Mark Cleaver 6-1 to set up a quarter-final tie with Damon Heta, who reeled off five legs on the spin to come from behind and beat Ben Robb.

Josh Rock and James Wade also meet in the quarter-finals after overcoming Simon Whitlock and Kayden Milne, respectively.

Last 16 (best of 11 legs) Gerwyn Price 6-1 Mark Cleaver Ross Smith 5-6 Adam Leek James Wade 6-0 Kayden Milne Josh Rock 6-4 Simon Whitlock Gian van Veen 6-1 Jonny Tata Jonny Clayton 6-5 Haupai Puha Damon Heta 6-4 Ben Robb Stephen Bunting 2-6 Raymond Smith

Quarter-finals (best of 11 legs) Gian van Veen vs Jonny Clayton James Wade vs Josh Rock Gerwyn Price vs Damon Heta Raymond Smith vs Adam Leek

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