Team Unicorn quartet Terry Jenkins, Raymond van Barneveld, Phil Taylor and Jamie Caven all won their second round matches to win places in the last eight of the PartyPoker.net European Championship in Dinslaken.
Number five seed Terry Jenkins was pushed all the way before seeing off Australian star Simon Whitlock 10-8 in their second round clash. The duo shared the game's opening 14 legs before a double salvo from Jenkins put him into a crucial 9-7 lead before he closed out victory.
Barney came close to one of darts' greatest ever upsets before defeating Germany's Bernd Roith 10-7. Roith, a caterer from Tuebingen in Germany who overcame Denis Ovens in the first round on his televised debut, set up the prospect of an incredible victory over the world number two when finishes of 101 and 141 helped him into a 7-5 lead. However, the Unicorn star regained his composure to punished three misses from Roith to level in the 14th leg, before completing a run of five successive legs to set up a quarter-final with Wayne Jones on Sunday.
"This is one of the hardest battles I've had in my career," said van Barneveld. "I didn't underestimate him but he played superbly and I am very relieved to come through it."
Reigning champion Taylor, meanwhile, progressed to the quarter-finals in more comfortable fashion with a 10-5 defeat of Andy Smith, who held the world number one for eight legs before succumbing to a typical charge from the Stoke great. Taylor will now meet Mark Walsh in the quarters, after the number eight seed overcame Jelle Klaasen 10-6 earlier on Saturday.
Jamie Caven won through to his second televised quarter-final with a 10-6 defeat of Wales' Barrie Bates, and he now faces world number five Terry Jenkins in an all-Unicorn clash on Sunday.
Photo courtesy Laurence Lustig / PDC