Canadian star John Part remains on course to defend his Las Vegas crown but he will have to get past in-form World Champion Raymond Van Barneveld first!
The pair will face-off in the semi-finals at the Mandalay Bay, while Peter Manley will take on Terry Jenkins, after winning the all-Unicorn affair against Adrian Lewis.
The tension was palpable between the Unicorn duo, with thoughts going back to their infamous bust-up at the World Championship two years ago and there may have been words between them but Manley kept his cool head on to seal a dramatic win.
“It was tough,” said Manley. “People build up the rivalry and if Adrian said something, I wasn’t listening.” Manley is two big games away from winning the Desert Classic title for a second time.
Yet again though, Part so nearly blew in a titanic tussle against a resurgent Dennis Smith, before finally winning in another last leg shoot-out. The Unicorn ace went two legs clear and then could only watch as Smith won four on the spin, including a brilliant 170 finish.
Part was forced to draw on all his experience. He then fought back to lead 7-5 but back came Smith and it was probably fitting the match went all the way to a decider. The nerve ends were frayed…..first Part missed two darts at double 16 to take it, then Smith also missed two darts for the match…..the Canadian finally took out double four to book his place in the last four.
It was 12 months ago that Part beat Barneveld in the final in Vegas…..can he repeat the dose this time round? It will be a terrific match. Barney averaged 101.39 in his comfortable victory over Roland Scholten and still looks the man to beat.
Part said: “It was a real battle but you expect that when you play Dennis. I am looking forward to Sunday and I feel confident.”
The Manley/Lewis quarter-final was a mini classic. The Stoke youngster raced off the blocks into a 3-0 lead. He finished superbly on 118 and it looked like being one-way traffic but you never write off Peter Manley!
‘One Dart’ came storming back and incredibly he won seven of the next eight legs. In one leg, he responded to a Lewis maximum with a 174 of his own and a brilliant 130 check-out. At that stage, Lewis was clearly rattled.
But he showed great character to win four legs on the spin and it was back level at seven apiece. The next two legs went with throw, before Manley crucially broke to lead 9-8 and he finished it off in style – hitting three consecutive 140s to finally break the Lewis resistence.
In the other quarter-final, Jenkins came from 3-5 down to beat the last remaining American Gary Mawson.
Quarter-final results:
Dennis Smith 9-10 John Part
Adrian Lewis 8-10 Peter Manley
Raymond Van Barneveld 10-4 Roland Scholten
Gary Mawson 7-10 Terry Jenkins
Losers - £5,000
Semi-final draw:
Peter Manley v Terry Jenkins
John Part v Raymond Van Barneveld
Best of 21 legs
Final – best of 25 legs
BY STUART PYKE