THE William Hill World Darts Championship is up and running with St Helens’ three senior darters all looking to make their mark.

While 1,000 fans got to see the opening night’s action at Alexandra Palace on Tuesday, the heightened Covid-19 restrictions to Tier 3 in London since then mean that Michael Smith, Dave Chisnall and Stephen Bunting will all begin their campaigns behind closed doors.

They are not in action until the second round on the final day of action before Christmas.

Bunting will take to the stage in the afternoon session on December 23, while Smith and Chisnall will be in action that evening for games which will be the best of five sets.

None of the trio will find out who their hurdle to the third round is until the weekend.

Bunting will face the winner of Saturday afternoon’s first-round clash between Andy Boulton and Deta Hedman.

Chisnall will tackle either Keegan Brown or Ryan Meikle, who square up on Sunday night, while earlier that day Jason Lowe meets Dmitriy Gorbunov for the right to take on Smith.

The event then takes a break until December 27, when fans may return should a review on December 23 allow for a slackening of the restrictions.

In all, 96 of the world’s best players compete over 16 days for the sport’s biggest prize.

The winner on January 3 will collect a life-changing £500,000 prize along with the coveted Sid Waddell Trophy.

Reigning champion Peter Wright is already through to the third round, having disposed of Steve West 3-1 on Tuesday.

Fourth seed Smith is 14/1 with William Hill to win the title for the first time, behind the top three of Michael van Gerwen 5/2, Gerwyn Price 5/1 and Wright 6/1.

All three St Helens throwers are in tough draw brackets, with Smith potentially having a duel with fifth seed Rob Cross in the quarter finals where eighth-seed Chisnall will face favourite van Gerwen if they both progress.

If 26th seed Bunting reaches the fourth round he will possibly have had to have overhauled seventh seed James Wade in order to set up a potential meet with holder Wright in the quarter finals.

In tradition, third and fourth round ties move up to the best of seven sets, while the quarter finals and semi finals will be best of nine and the final advances to 11.

Unlike in the past, there will be no tie-break in any match. Should any deciding set reach two-all, the fifth leg would be the final leg.

Afternoon sessions start at noon and evening sessions at 6pm on the Sky Sports Darts channel.