Taylor holds off The Hammer

Taylor: Not at his best

Grand Slam of Darts results:
M Webster 10-2 J Part
S Whitlock 10-8 A Jenkins
P Taylor 10-8 A Hamilton
M King 10-9 K McDine

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• Order of Merit
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Phil Taylor was given a brief scare before sealing his place in the quarter-finals of the PartyPoker.com Grand Slam of Darts with a 10-8 win over Andy Hamilton.

The match, a repeat of last year's final, was balanced on a knife-edge for long spells as Taylor struggled to find his regular devastating rhythm.

However, with the match evenly poised at 4-4, Taylor upped the ante by clinching the next four legs as Hamilton appeared to wilt.

With the game slipping away from him, Hamilton clawed his way back to 8-7, only for Taylor to hold his nerve when it mattered by taking out 107 in the penultimate leg before hitting tops to win.

The 107 check-out was Taylor's highest of the match, an indication of how much he struggled against his Stoke-on-Trent counterpart.

Missed doubles

'The Power' now faces a last eight showdown with Simon Whitlock after the Australian successfully booked his place in the quarter finals with a 10-8 success over Andy Jenkins.

The Queenslander held his nerve in a tense, if scrappy affair, taking out double ten with his final dart of the 18th leg to secure his passage through.

The defeat marks the end of the tournament for Jenkins, who defeated Taylor for the first ever time on Sunday.

After hitting just eight out of 30 doubles, the Portsmouth arrower can have few complaints over the defeat.

The crucial break of darts came in the 16th leg as Whitlock capitalised on five missed doubles from Jenkins to move 9-7 ahead before clinching a memorable win.

Elsewhere, Mark Webster produced a sizzling display of arrows to defeat an out-of-sorts John Part 10-2, while an emotional Mervyn King won a thriller against Kevin McDine.

In an utterly one-sided contest between the two reigning world champions, Webster put in the kind of performance which makes him a genuine contender to win the Wolverhampton event.

Intent

Part, in contrast, never found his groove - averaging just 83.68 to Webster's 91.73 as he was unceremoniously dumped out of the tournament.

Many predicted a tight contest, and that seemed to be what was in store as the score was poised at 2-1 after the first three legs.

However, the Welshman then left Part in his wake with a clinical display of finishing which saw him reel off six straight legs - a 158 check-out illustrating his intent.

The Canadian did get on the board once more to make it 8-2, however Webster ruthlessly took out double 17 before clinching the win on double top.

Speaking after the match, Webster said: "I don't think i've been playing that well so i'm delighted to win and be in the quarter-finals.

"John never got going but it was in the back of my mind that he came back from 4-1 to beat me last year so I had to keep my concentration and finish him off."

King fought back from 6-2 down to win a final leg thriller 10-9 against last year's semi-finalist McDine - just hours after attending the funeral of his aunt.

"It means so much to me and for many reasons it was the hardest game of my career," said King after the match. "It's been an emotional day and I'm very relieved to have got through."