Phil Taylor proved once more that he is getting back to his best – cruising through the first day of the UK Open London Regional – to reach Sunday’s quarter-finals. ‘The Power’ will be joined by Colin Lloyd in the last eight. The other qualifiers are Mervyn King, Vincent van der Voort, Wayne Mardle, Terry Jenkins, Dennis Priestley and Steve Beaton.
Taylor dropped only four legs all day – eventually beating Alan Tabern 5-1 to go through.
Lloyd was on good form but was forced to find top gear in his final game, before beating Adrian Gray 5-3.
Of the other Team Unicorn stars, Peter Manley reached the last 16. He lost 1-5 to Chris Mason.
In Round three, Adrian Lewis was beaten 5-2 by Wayne Mardle, Ray Carver lost by the same score to Tony Eccles and Kevin Painter went down 5-1 to Gary Welding.
Welding also beat good friend Wes Newton in the 4th Round, while there were 2nd round exits for Michael Barnard, Kirk Shepherd and Bob Anderson.
James Wade lost in Round Four to Mardle, Andy Hamilton was beaten 5-0 by Dennis Priestley and John Part lost 5-2 to John Kuczynski – also in the 4th Round.
Falling at the same hurdle were Mick McGowan – a 5-1 loser to Terry Jenkins, Barrie Bates – beaten 5-3 by Adrian Gray and Colin Osborne, who lost 5-3 to Tony Randall.
Final qualifiers – results:
Terry Jenkins 5-1 Chris Mason
In his first PDC event, Mervyn King breezed comfortably into the last eight and his achievement means he has already won enough money to qualify for the ‘live’ UK Open Final at Bolton in June.
There will be news on the rest of the event right here on the Unicorn website.
BY STUART PYKE
