It was billed as ‘The Duel in Dublin’ and Phil Taylor was certainly quick on the draw, as he raced to a 3-0 win in the all Unicorn showdown with Paul Nicholson.
In the end, Nicholson could have no complaints and Taylor was buoyant after he took his place in the quarter-finals.
“He said ‘Well done’ straight after the winning dart,” Taylor revealed.
Of course, their verbal jousting is well documented over recent months!
“Eric (Bristow), Jocky (Wilson) and John (Lowe) all went to wind me up years ago. Paul had a good dig and I did get a bit upset by it. But if he is going to talk the talk, he has to walk the walk,” Taylor added.
But ‘The Power’ backed calls for Nicholson to be given a wildcard to the 2012 Premier League.
“He is making a name for himself. Put him in the Premier League and let’s see what happens. It will either make or break him.”
Taylor put down a huge marker in the opening set!
He took out 105 and then 120 to win it after Nicholson had missed one dart at D5 to force a deciding leg…..the second set followed the same pattern.
Nicholson kicked off with his second 180 but Taylor put his foot on the gas to win the next three legs with ease and ‘The Asset’ didn’t come close to challenging him.
The end, when it came was fairly swift, but only after Nicholson had missed a trick.
‘The Asset’ missed two darts at D18 and D9 to break the Taylor throw and ‘The Power’ nailed ‘tops’. Nicholson levelled by hitting D10
In the next leg, Nicholson had left 122 but had to watch as Taylor checked-out a brilliant 147! And an 89 finish sealed the deal.
Taylor averaged 93 to Nicholson’s 90 but his finishing was the big difference…..Taylor hit 9/15 – a 60 per cent check-out success rate.
Of course, it is Taylor’s sixth consecutive win over his big rival since the well documented war of words between the pair kicked off in the summer.
Taylor will now take on Mark Webster in the quarter-finals at the City West, after the Welshman hit three ton plus finishes in a convincing 3-1 victory over Alan Tabern.
Elsewhere on another dramatic night in the tournament of shocks, Mark Hylton came from a set down to stun Simon Whitlock to reach his second Major ‘TV’ Final of the year.
Hylton won 3-1 despite six 180s from the Australian…..Whitlock missed key doubles at crucial times though…..Hylton, who reached the last eight at the UK Open in Bolton, will now face Richie Burnett in Friday’s Quarter-Finals.
Burnett is living the dream! Two weeks ago, he was nowhere near even qualifying for this tournament, but won a Players Championship event in Holland to win his place in Dublin.
And he followed up his shock win over Gary Anderson with a 3 sets to 1 victory over Denis Ovens.
Thursday 2nd Round results:
Mark Webster 3-1 Alan Tabern
Simon Whitlock 1-3 Mark Hylton
Phil Taylor 3-0 Paul Nicholson
Richie Burnett 3-1 Denis Ovens
Friday quarter-finals (best of 7 sets):
John Henderson v Brendan Dolan
James Wade v Andy Smith
Phil Taylor v Mark Webster
Richie Burnett v Mark Hylton
By STUART PYKE at the World Grand Prix
Photo courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC