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It will now be an all-Unicorn final against Peter ‘One Dart’ Manley.

Taylor came from 5 sets to 4 down to win 6-5 in an absolute thriller. “I have never had to dig so deep,” admitted Taylor. “I am absolutely shattered but I now have a final to prepare for.”

‘The Power’ was also feeling under the weather and his lights were so nearly switched out in Purfleet. Mardle missed four darts to make it 5-3 and that was the big turning point.

It was a match of the highest quality and featured an amazing 24 180s – a record for the World Championships.

Taylor also paid credit to ‘Hawaii 501’. “He was brilliant – you just can’t keep him down but I never stopped believing. I never thought I would lose.”

We just knew there was going to be darting drama from the first set. In a nailbiting final leg, both players missed 10 darts to win it, before Taylor finally nailed double top.

Mardle was close to tears at the end and you can’t blame him…he will surely never have a better chance. Taylor danced around the stage in celebration – as if he had won the title itself. He has still got one more massive challenge in his pursuit of a 13th World crown.

Taylor raced into a 3 set lead and despite being far from his best, looked destined to race away with the semi-final.

Mardle had other ideas, producing some magical darts, to reel off four consecutive sets. But he will never forget those four darts he missed to make it 5-3. He had two at double 18 and two more at double 4.

Both players averaged 97, as they slugged it out like two prize fighters, on the biggest stage in world darts.

Taylor is now quoted as 1/8 favourite for the final. Manley is 9/2 as the pair battle it out to become the first World Champion of 2006.

It will go down in darting history. You can talk until you’re blue in the face about ‘ifs, buts, coulds and shoulds!’ but Taylor drew on massive reserves of experience. We will see what he has got left in the tank on Monday night

Peter Manley reached his third World Championship Final with a brilliant 6 sets to nil whitewash of Wolverhampton qualifier Wayne Jones.

‘One Dart’ put the controversy of his quarter-final with Adrian Lewis firmly behind him, to produce his best darts for years.

“It was a fantastic display. It’s been a tough 48 hours for me. On top of all the stuff being said about the verbals in the quarter-final, my mum has been taken into hospital, so it’s been a difficult time,” he said.

Manley won a tight first set but amazingly dropped only four more legs in the rest of the match.

In the second set, he hit his first 180 and produced a brilliant 11 dart leg. It got better with a 121 check-out, two more 180s and a three set lead, with a 100 average.

Jones had no answer to Manley’s power scoring. Unicorn’s ‘Amarillo Man’ wrapped up victory in less than an hour. A 144 finish was followed by a 156 ‘kill’ to win the 5th set and two more 180s put Jones out of his misery.

“I went up there angry,” Manley revealed. “All the hype surrounding the quarter-final fired me up. All the crowd booing doesn’t bother me any more. I have got at least £50,000 in my pocket and I will play the final with no pressure.”

“I have worked so hard to get rid of the bad guy image. All I want to do is play darts and enjoy playing darts and I am going to enjoy every minute of the final.”

Manley’s end average was 99.5 but he knows he will have to top that magical 100 mark, if he is going to upset Taylor. It is a repeat of the finals from 1999 and 2003, when Taylor won 6-2 and 7-0.

By Stuart Pyke

The 2006 Labrokes.com World Championship Final is live on Sky Sports on Monday, starting at 7.30pm