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Jenkins squeezes past Wade

Wade left cursing crowd, Whitlock, Thornton and Waites all progress

Last updated: 22nd November 2009

Jenkins: 10-9 victory over Wade

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Terry Jenkins edged a thriller to knock James Wade out of the Grand Slam of Darts, but Wade was left cursing the noisy Wolverhampton crowd for his second round exit.

Despite throwing seven maximums and finishing with a five point higher average, Wade ended empty-handed as Jenkins produced a stirring finish to pinch a dramatic match 10-9.

A tense encounter finally seemed to have swung in Wade's favour as he broke Jenkins' throw with a 13-dart leg to move within one of victory at 9-8.

Throwing with the darts, Wade had left himself an outshot of 148 to close out the match, but was forced to step away from his shot on a couple of occasions as members of the crowd called out.

He subsequently failed to check out and Jenkins stepped in to take out 80 to square the match at 9-9.

Throwing first in the deciding leg, Jenkins just about kept his nose in front and then crossed the finish line with quite superb 121 check-out.

When questioned whether the crowd played a part in his defeat, a clearly irked Wade told ITV4: "Yeah, course they have, but that's what they pay their money to do.

"I think it's quite sad to do something like that. At the end of the day I'm just trying to earn a wage like they all do in the crowd.

"I wouldn't park in front of their drive to stop them going to earn a living so I don't see why they had to do what they did.

"But they did what they did and Terry played better darts than me and he's the winner and I wish him the best of luck in the next round."

Dramatic

On a dramatic night at the Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, three of the four matches played went to a deciding leg.

In the opening contest of the evening Scot Robert Thornton prevailed 10-9 to book a quarter-final showdown with Jenkins.

Thornton looked to be cruising through as he stormed into a commanding 7-2 lead over American Darin Young, but a spate of missed doubles from Thornton allowed his opponent back in.

Young pulled to within one leg at 7-6, but Thornton looked to be in charge once again as he responded to get to 9-7.

But Young came again to level at 9-9 and Thornton had to rely on a 116 check-out to seal a tense victory.

Arguably the game of the night was the clash between Gary Anderson and Scott Waites, with Waites just shading another thriller.

11 maximums

Anderson ended with 11 maximums and an average of 100, but could not put his opponent to bed and was made to pay.

Arguably the turning point came in the 14th leg when, after Anderson had narrowly failed with a 137 check-out, Waites produced a 136 finish to level the match at 7-7.

Anderson responded to get himself to 9-7, but Waites would not lie down and took the last three legs to earn his place in the final eight.

The night's other match did not contain quite so much drama as Simon Whitlock thrashed Steve Beaton to move on.

The Australian was in clinical form and reinforced his credentials as a genuine dark horse this week as he romped to an emphatic 10-1 triumph.