Friday 14 November 2014 14:17, UK
Phil Taylor made light work of a tough-looking tie with Peter Wright to win 10-4 and book a quarter-final tie with Michael Smith at the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton.
The Power has gone out early in the last three big events, but he’s a five-time champion in the Grand Slam and was on decent form again to come through some early pressure from Snakebite to move through with ease in the end.
Wright pulled out some good early finishes to lead 3-2, but Taylor hit back to reel off four straight legs to move 5-3 in front, before making that 7-4 and then cantering to the finish line.
“Peter put me under a lot of pressure there, he is so hard work believe me! He’s a great character and he’s difficult to beat, he’s a hard player,” said Taylor, who averaged 101.7 in the victory.
Taylor now faces former World Youth champion Smith, who famously dumped The Power out of the last World Championship, but the 16-time champion has exacted some revenge on the circuit since then.
“What a scorer, what a player, he’s got a grown head on young shoulders and he’s risen in such a quick time and it’ll be a good game,” Taylor said of facing Smith again.
“I think we’re even now after he beat me last year because I beat him last time. We’ll both be up for it on Saturday though so it should be a great game.”
Smith hit seven 180s and averaged just under 100 to see off Christian Kist 10-5 despite losing the first three legs of the match.
Stephen Bunting won an absolute belter of a match with James Wade to make the last eight in his debut in the event, as he came through a high-quality encounter with a 10-8 success.
The Lakeside world champion and left-handed Wade both hit four ton-plus finishes in their match as they went toe-to-toe right from the outset, with Bunting hitting two 90-plus finishes and Wade a maximum 170 checkout all in the first three legs.
Bunting went 5-2 ahead and he was ten points better in the averages before Wade started to claw his way back into the contest, making it 8-7 before Bunting hit a 114 finish to go within one of the match.
Still Wade refused to lay down and he stuck in a brilliant 164 to hang on in there at 9-8, but again Bunting raised his game just at the right time to book a quarter-final with Mervyn King.
"James Wade is a fantastic player, I needed to take out a few ton-plus finishes to get over the line there in the end, he hit that 170 early so I knew it was giong to be tough," said Bunting.
Superior finishing was the key for Mervyn King as he beat Gary Anderson 10-4 despite the Scotsman holding the edge in the averages as his old Achilles heel proved his undoing once again.
Anderson is always a strong scorer and he was two points better than King on the averages but could not find the outer ring, hitting just four of 23 attempts at a finishing double.
King, who also hit six 180s to Anderson’s three, took full advantage with a 56 percent checkout rate to book his place in the last eight, although he is far from happy with his form.
“The scoring wasn’t really there but if you look back at the tournament I’ve not been scoring at my best all through it, but I’ve been hitting the doubles,” said King, who won all of his group games by just the odd leg.
“If I can just start to increase my scoring then who knows what I can do.”
