Bunting stuns Taylor in Euro thriller26/10/2014 Bunting stuns Taylor in Euro thriller
ESPN staff
October 25, 2014
Stephen Bunting stunned four-time winner Phil Taylor in one of the matches of the year to book his place in the quarter-finals of the European Championships in Germany.
With both players averaging over 100, 16 scores of 180 and Bunting going one throw away from a nine-darter, the pair produced a match of high drama in Mulheim.
The opening 10 legs in the best-of-19 contest produced 13 180s, with Bunting narrowly missing a double-seven and the chance of victory at 9-8 only to see Taylor come back to pinch the leg in 12 darts.
Opening the following leg with just 58, Bunting looked as though he had fluffed his lines, but he rebounded to hit a 10th 180 and then threw down 68 to claim a famous 10-9 victory.
In the evening session's opening match, Raymond van Barneveld defeated compatriot Vincent van der Voort 10-7, while fellow Dutchman Michael van Gerwen was later pushed all the by Brendan Dolan.
After Van Gerwen landed a 180 and a double-eight finish to break throw in the opening leg, Dolan at one point found himself 6-4 in front. But a gritty Van Gerwen refused to lie down, coming back to through his 10th 180 in the final leg and win 10-8.
Mervyn King completed the quarter-final line-up with a convincing 10-7 victory over Ronny Huybrechts.
Earlier, Jelle Klaasen hit ten 180s to claim his place in the last eight in Saturday's afternoon session, while Terry Jenkins, Dave Chisnall and Peter Wright also picked up victories to join him in the next round.
Klaasen, a former semi-finalist in the tournament, defeated Jamie Caven 10-7 in a heavy-scoring contest and the Dutchman admitted that he was delighted with his performance.
"I played better than in the first round and it's good to be through," Klaasen said. "I played well at the end of the game.
"Maybe I should have been 6-4 up instead of 6-4 down, but after that I played brilliant - I was scoring well and at the end I finished pretty well.
"Away from the big stage I'm sometimes averaging over 110, but it's different up on stage and it's getting better on stage for me and I feel more confident.
"I've got to finish better than I did here in the quarter-finals but I feel good and I'm focused."
Wright joined Klaasen in the quarters with a 10-5 victory over Kim Huybrechts. The No.4 seed's break came in the ninth leg as he capitalised on a hat-trick of missed doubles from his opponent to move 5-4.
The pair shared the next two legs, but Wright powered home to finish 142 on a run of four successive legs.
No.8 seed Chisnall battled to a 10-9 victory over Ian White, while Jenkins edged through with a 10-8 win over Robert Thornton.
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