It is the match the darts world has been waiting for!
And now the Unicorn duo of Paul Nicholson and Phil Taylor will clash head-on in the European Championship quarter-finals!
We all remember their verbal jousting at the World Matchplay in Blackpool and what a mouth-watering prospect it is in Dusseldorf.
Both players were respectful as Taylor took out Mervyn King and Nicholson beat Terry Jenkins. Both will now want to do their talking on the dart board in Germany.
“Paul played very well and looked calm,” said Taylor. “There was some motivation for me to play him here and it is the match everyone wants to see. It will be a great game with plenty of excitement.”
Nicholson said: “I am relaxed at the moment and living the dream. I have got into the world’s top 10 and I know that I can beat anybody. I am looking forward to it.”
Nicholson averaged over 100 for the first time in a TV tournament….101.61 and a 63 per cent check-out success rate was far too good for Jenkins, as ‘The Bull’ again paid the price for missing important doubles.
‘The Asset’ raced into a 6-2 lead, with a succession of top finishing….at this stage he had only missed two darts at double, and although Jenkins managed to take out 101 to stay interested, Nicholson took control.
He won three legs on the spin after Jenkins had missed doubles in all of them….12 crucial missed doubles told its own story.
And a 10-4 win sets Nicholson up nicely for the huge clash on Sunday with Taylor.
‘The Power’ raced into a 3-0 lead against King – winning those legs in only 37 darts!
King managed to get it back to 3-2 but another surge of four legs on the spin took Taylor to the verge of victory……his opponent managed a 105 check-out to win a third leg but that was as good as it got and three more consecutive legs and Taylor was over the line with an average of 102.47
The countdown is on to Taylor against Nicholson on Sunday!
But for Gary Anderson, it turned into a nightmare as he slumped to a shock defeat the hands of Peter Wright in Germany.
It was one of those days for Anderson where nothing went right for him, and he even tried two sets of darts during the match but he just couldn’t buy a double, while his opponent took out the big shots when it mattered.
The Unicorn man actually led 4-2 but he never looked comfortable and when Wright came back to nail 121 to level at 5-5, he visibly grew in confidence.
Anderson continued to miss his favourite ‘tops’ (in the end he blew 14 darts at doubles), but Wright kept hitting the target….he took out 116 after the Scot missed ‘tops’ and another missed dart gave Wright the chance to nail another 121 finish on D14 and he wrapped it all up, winning a 6th consecutive leg.
After losing to Andy Hamilton in the 1st Round of the World Matchplay, this will be doubly disappointing for Anderson, who has now got three months to wait until the next big TV ‘Major’ in Ireland.
In the other 2nd Round match, Simon Whitlock destroyed Colin Lloyd 10-2 with a 98 average….in one leg the Australian hit six perfect darts, but it was just a very bad day at the office for Lloyd….Whitlock will now play Wright in Sunday’s quarter-finals.
2nd Round results:
Simon Whitlock 10-2 Colin Lloyd
Terry Jenkins 4-10 Paul Nicholson
Phil Taylor 10-3 Mervyn King
Gary Anderson 5-10 Peter Wright
Saturday night 2nd Round schedule:
Wes Newton v Kim Huybrechts
Adrian Lewis v Dave Chisnall
James Wade v Ronnie Baxter
Raymond van Barneveld v Mark Walsh
By STUART PYKE in Dusseldorf, Germany
Photos courtesy Chris Sargeant