Darts: Taylor's display hints that records may fall

PHIL Taylor last night powered through to the quarter-finals of the Stan James World Matchplay and a shoot-out with one of darts' rising stars.

He breezed to a 13-5 victory over Derby's Colin Osborne to set up a last-eight clash against Kevin McDine tomorrow night, and the 13-time world champion from Bradwell is in the mood to claim the title for the ninth time at the Winter Gardens.

McDine last night beat Mark Walsh 13-9 having put out Cross Heath's Adrian Lewis in the first round, but Taylor will be a red-hot favourite to win the best of 31 legs showdown.

Taylor averaged 113.86 in opening up a 10-0 lead against Osborne last night to suggest he could rewrite the record books.

His three-dart average of 114.53 against Wes Newton in last month's Blue Square UK Open at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton was the best in the PDC's history of televised events and the 113.43 he achieved against Gary Mawson in 1997 is the best in the 15 years of the event at the Winter Gardens.

Instead, the The Power finished with an average of 109.7 – the third highest in the tournament's history.

Taylor hit five maximum 180s and 18 scores of 140 or more in a romp that would have been more comfortable had he sank double 16 in the 14th leg.

Osborne fought back to win the next four legs – starting the 16th leg with back-to-back 180s on the way to a 10-darter – to pull it back to 12-5 before Taylor hit the decisive double 10 to secure a place in the last eight.

Taylor was beaten by Terry Jenkins in the semi-finals last year and said: “This tournament is as big as the world championships for me and I want it back.

“I wanted to win the match with a nine-darter, but I relaxed a bit when I was 12-1 ahead and Colin showed a lot of bottle to come back. I thought I was going to win quite easily and then I had to dig in.”

Taylor started the match with three successive 140s and went on to take the opening leg against the throw after Osborne missed two darts at a double.

Taylor added the next in 14 darts, then broke again to lead 3-0 and punished Osborne for missing missed darts at a double to win the fifth and seventh legs.

He took the eighth, ninth and 10th legs in 12 darts apiece – winning the ninth against the darts after the duo had traded 180s.

Osborne avoided a whitewash with a 110 finish in the 11th leg and then staged a late rally with four straight legs to cut the deficit to seven legs, but 'The Power' stepped it up again to complete victory.