‘One Dart’ lived up to his nickname to sweep aside ‘The Pie Man’ Andy Smith in their quarter-final clash of the darting heavyweights in Dublin.
The Unicorn star was in impressive form and produced one of the best ever starting averages in the nine-year history of the tournament. Manley took an average of just 1.8 darts to get away in each leg and that is some going. He was simply terrific on the ‘double-to-start’ and Smith had no answer.
Manley’s 4-1 victory takes him into a Dublin semi-final for the 4th time.
“I wanted to play 100 mph darts and that’s exactly what I did. I could see that Andy was struggling in the heat, so I had to be ruthless. It is now in my hands. I feel I am playing pretty well and if I can keep starting like that, I will be a match for anyone,” he said.
Manley breezed through the first two sets, before Smith pulled one back but that was as close as he got. Manley checked out 76 to take the fourth and he finished the match in style with a great 120 finish.
But sadly, there won’t be an all-Unicorn semi-final, after Bob Anderson finally ran out of steam – beaten 4 sets to 1 by Terry Jenkins.
It all looked so good, as the 58-year-old veteran took the opening set with a brilliant 110 check-out. Anderson started misfiring in the middle of the match and Jenkins reeled off seven consecutive legs to put himself firmly in the driving seat. Once the man from Herefordshire built up a 3-1 lead, there was no way back for ‘The Limestone Cowboy’ and Jenkins closed out the match, to move into his first ever ‘Major’ TV semi-final.
You can never write off Manley, who will fancy his chances against Jenkins. He has enjoyed a good week on the Emerald Isle, after clinching a spot in the 2007 Premier League. How he would love to round it off with another major final on Sunday.
But you feel that he is going to have to switch off ‘The Power’. Taylor was in the comfort zone, as he disposed of a wounded Roland Scholten 4 sets to nil. The Dutchman was really in pain, struggling with a bad neck injury and as the match went on, he couldn’t move his left arm.
Taylor lost only two legs in the entire quarter-final. His end average was only 89 but Taylor didn’t have to raise his game. You have to give Scholten credit for having a go, because it would have been the easy option to withdraw from the tournament due to his chronic neck problem.
But there is no sentiment in the cut and thrust of a major darts event. “It was difficult for both of us,” admitted Taylor. “I could see he was really struggling in the practice room. It is my instinct to pounce and that’s exactly what I did.”
Taylor now faces his great rival Dennis Priestley, after ‘The Menace’ out-thought and out-fought Team Unicorn’s James Wade.
Priestley won 4 sets to 2 in a real war of attrition. Wade just couldn’t cope with the pace of the match. The 56-year-old has one of the slowest throws in the sport – taking around 23 seconds to release his three darts – and it clearly bothered the 23-year-old from Aldershot.
There is no doubt that Wade, just like Adrian Lewis in the 2nd Round, got more frustrated the longer the match went on. It clearly affected his concentration and his scoring. He actually took the opening set in some style with a 13-darter. Then Priestley took the next two and you could see the frustration etched on Wade’s face.
He raised his game to level the match but the tank was empty and Priestley took six of the next eight legs to clinch his semi-final showdown against Taylor.
Friday’s Quarter-Final results:
Peter Manley 4-1 Andy Smith
Saturday’s Semi-Final line up (best of 11 sets):
Peter Manley v Terry Jenkins
All the action is live on Sky Sports 2 from 7pm
BY STUART PYKE
