Colin Lloyd has hauled himself off the bottom of the table thanks to his first victory in the 2007 Holsten Premier League. Phil Taylor demolished Peter Manley in the all Unicorn clash, Adrian Lewis was hammered by Dennis Priestley, who continues to set the early pace at the top, while World Champion Raymond Van Barneveld was forced to produce his very best to snatch a draw against Terry Jenkins!
It all added up to another dramatic night of darts in front of 4,000 fans in Newcastle.
Lloyd was desperate to get going in the tournament and a well-deserved 8 legs to 5 victory over Roland Scholten should be the jolt he needs to push for a place in the semi-finals.
The pair started the match with 180s! Scholten actually hit six perfect darts! He took the opening leg but Lloyd stormed back to win four on the spin. At 5-2 in front, Lloyd was averaging nearly 104 and looked much more like it!
The next five legs all went with throw to give Lloyd the vital win. An 86 finish won it in style and an end average of 99 brought the smile back to the face of ‘Jaws’!
“It’s great to get going at last!” he said. “It was a tough game but I played well and I know that I can build on this. It was another great atmosphere and the crowd were fantastic. It was a pleasure to play that game.”
Manley was a shadow of the player that reached the Masters of Darts Final in Holland. He never got into his clash with Phil Taylor, who produced his best display of this year’s Premier League so far.
A 100.67 average against Manley’s 86 told its own story. From one leg apiece, Taylor won the next six and it was just a case of closing the match out. It’s now 31 games unbeaten for ‘The Power’ in the history of the event.
There were ominous signs for the rest that Taylor is really getting used to his new Unicorn darts and now he can look forward to next Thursday’s showdown with Barneveld in Sheffield.
He said: “I am certainly getting there with my game and I am really looking forward to taking on Barneveld. He will have a battle on his hands and I will be ready for it.”
He’ll certainly have revenge on his mind after their epic World Final!
There was huge disappointment for Adrian Lewis, who was taught a harsh darting lesson by the amazing Dennis Priestley…..34 years separate the two and experience won the day!
Lewis won a scrappy first leg and then missed darts to make it 2-0 but after that he was steamrollered by Priestley, who reeled off eight consecutive legs to hold on to top spot in the Premier League table. Lewis averaged just 82 and he’ll need to recover quickly from this pasting at the hands of the grand old darting master.
The last match produced some stunning darts, with Barney coming from 1-4 down to snatch a thrilling point against Terry Jenkins. He averaged 107 but could only draw against an impressive Jenkins. Barney took out a brilliant 170 finish to pocket the £1,000 for the highest check-out of the night and had to produce an 11-darter in the last leg of the match to earn his point!
Week Four results:
Colin Lloyd 8-5 Roland Scholten
Week Five schedule in Sheffield on March 1
Adrian Lewis v Roland Scholten
League table after four matches:
Priestley - 7 points….+ 15 legs
BY STUART PYKE
