Wade and Clayton set up World Matchplay semi-final showdown

James Wade and Jonny Clayton set up a World Matchplay semi-final clash on Saturday after the pair were victorious on Thursday night at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens.

Wade found an impressive eight legs in a row for a 16-13 victory against Gian van Veen while Clayton was comprehensive in a 16-7 win over Stephen Bunting.

The win puts Wade into his 10th Matchplay semi-final and it also marks back-to-back semis on what is his 20th consecutive appearance in Blackpool, the world No 5 losing out to eventual winner Luke Humphries in 2024.

Meanwhile, Clayton is into his second ever Winter Gardens semi, his first coming back in 2023 when he eventually lost in the final to Nathan Aspinall.

The semi-final will mark the 30th meeting between the pair, Clayton going in with the win statistic 16-13 in his favour.

The second semi-final will be decided on Friday night as Luke Littler faces Andrew Gilding and Gerwyn Price takes on Josh Rock, live on Sky Sports.

How Wade vs Van Veen unfolded…

Despite Wade’s eventual dominance in the middle section of the clash, Van Veen got on top in the first session as Wade’s doubling continuously eluded him, ‘The Machine’ throwing away opportunities to win every leg in the session and allowing Van Veen to break twice for a 4-1 lead.

However, the tide well and truly turned from the second session onwards, Wade rattling off those eight legs before Van Veen managed to stop the rot with a hold of throw and bring the score to 9-5.

Wade was eventually put under pressure by Van Veen when he found the break of throw in the 23rd leg to move 13-11 behind but with the Dutchman missing the chance in the 25th leg to convert that into a double break, the former Matchplay champion held three times more, sealing the win on D10.

Although it was another big moment for Wade on the Winter Gardens stage, he said he was ” disgusted” in his performance at points.

“I thought I had thrown it away.

“He was quite weak early on in the game and I just thought ‘I’ll just pummel him’ and I couldn’t do it.

“Towards the end he was coming back and it was God’s gift to me, not my ability.

“I had a very stern word with myself. I was so disappointed – I was disgusted.”

Gian van Veen	13-16	James Wade
Stephen Bunting	7-16	Jonny Clayton

How Bunting vs Clayton unfolded…

Clayton had a 5-0 lead in the contest in no time thanks to a 110 session average, a sensational 160 checkout and two breaks of throw stopping Bunting in his tracks.

Bunting managed to get on the board in a second session that saw every leg go with throw, the 10-5 scoreline making evident that the Welshman had done more than enough to keep ‘The Bullet’ at arm’s length.

That continued as the fourth and fifth seed battled it out until ‘The Ferret’ came up with two decisive breaks of throw in the 20th and 22nd leg to move 15-7 ahead, taking out a sensational 118 finish for a huge win.