It was billed as the match of the night but it didn’t turn out that way!
Gary Anderson produced a tremendous tungsten display to dispatch James Wade 10-3 in their all Unicorn 2nd Round showdown at the William Hill Grand Slam of Darts.
And Anderson now faces the prospect of a quarter-final showdown with Team Unicorn stablemate Terry Jenkins!
‘The Bull’ reached the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam for a fifth consecutive year, as he fought back to beat local hero Wayne Jones 10-8, on what turned out to be another dramatic darting night at the Wolverhampton Civic.
‘The Flying Scotsman’ was flying and Wade just had no answer to Anderson’s scoring power….from 0-2 down, the Scot won seven consecutive legs and 10 out of 11 to cruise to victory.
“I’m getting there,” he said. “I love this tournament and I want to win it. I think my 180s hurt James and I hit my doubles when it mattered for a change.”
Anderson banged in nine 180s in 13 legs of darts and in the 8th leg, he actually hit seven perfect darts, but just missed the treble 19!
You certainly couldn’t have predicted what was going to happen when Wade won the first two legs – hitting a maximum (it turned out to be his only 180) and a 122 finish, and he followed that up with a 76 check-out.
Anderson hit five 180s in six legs to take control and there was nothing that Wade could do…..last year’s losing Grand Slam finalist finally stopped the rot to win a third leg, but at 3-7 down there was no way back….not the way Anderson was playing.
Anderson hit two 11 darters, an 81 finish with his opponent sat on ‘tops’ and a two dart 100 check-out took him to the brink of victory…an 8th maximum and 86 finish made it 9-3 and D6 won it in impressive style for the World No.4
Jenkins came up with a gutsy display to beat Wolverhampton’s Wayne Jones…..from 6-8 down, he won four consecutive legs to set up Saturday’s showdown with Anderson.
In fact, when Jenkins moved into a 9-8 lead, it was the first time that he had been ahead in the entire match!
He was 0-2, 2-4 and 4-6 down but just kept hanging on in there….the 11th leg was crucial because Jones missed two darts for a double break of throw and 7-4 lead and somehow ‘The Bull’ hit back again….and again!
But when Jones stretched out to an 8-6 advantage, it looked like Jenkins proud record of reaching the quarter-finals of every GSOD was about to end.
Not a bit of it!
A cool-as-you like D10 drew him back level at 8-8 after Jones missed two more darts for a 9-7 lead and then the Unicorn man went ahead for the first time after he hit a fifth 180.
Jenkins then wrapped up an impressive victory against the odds.
“I am delighted with that,” he said. “It has been a difficult year for me but I know when I perform I can mix it with the best and I reckon there is more to come from me this week.”
In Thursday’s other 2nd Round matches, Dean Winstanley will be kicking himself….he was 9-8 up against Mark Walsh, missed five darts to win in the final two legs and ended up losing 10-9.
Walsh will face Ted Hankey in the quarter-finals on Saturday after another thriller! ‘The Count’ is just sheer box office and he didn’t disappoint, beating Michael van Gerwen 10-9 at the Wolves Civic.
Three times Hankey levelled the match from two legs behind and he nailed a two dart 100 finish to snatch a dramatic win, much to the delight of the crowd.
Thursday 2nd Round results:
Dean Winstanley 9-10 Mark Walsh
Michael van Gerwen 9-10 Ted Hankey
Gary Anderson 10-3 James Wade
Terry Jenkins 10-8 Wayne Jones
Friday 2nd Round schedule:
Paul Nicholson v Steve Beaton
Mark Webster v Martin Phillips
Phil Taylor v Wes Newton
Adrian Lewis v John Part
By STUART PYKE
Photos by Lawrence Lustig / PDC