Brendan Dolan had two darts to defeat Phil Taylor.
Picture by Lawrence Lustig
The luck of the Irish deserted Brendan Dolan on Saturday evening as he fell to defeat to Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor at the last 16 stage of the Speedy Services UK Open in Bolton.
The Belcoo tungsten thrower had two darts to win the match, but both fell agonisingly on the wrong side of the wire.
It wasn’t a question of the stage getting to Dolan, but rather it was just bad luck, which the eventual champion Taylor admitted.
“Brendan, he had me dead and buried didn’t he?” a relieved Taylor told Sky Sports afterwards.
“That was just luck – to go all through that and then he missed two darts at double (to win it), was sheer, sheer luck.”
World Number one Taylor only got in front right at the end of the match as Dolan took out a 102 finish to establish a 2-1 lead and then 101 to go 3-2 up. He then broke Taylor with a 124 check-out to go 4-2 up and then led before Taylor pegged him back to 5-5.
At 7-7, the four times champion missed the bull to check-out 167 and Dolan hit 103 to go 8-7 up.
Both players then missed the bull to win the 16th leg before Dolan had two darts at double to win the clash. He missed double eight and double four though and Taylor took full advantage, sinking double eight to send the match into the decisive leg. Dolan had the darts but Taylor was ruthless, finishing with an 11 darter, sinking 177, 140, 136 and then 48 to seal the victory.
On the way to the last 16 Dolan, ‘The History Maker’, had been in impressive form accounting for Mark Padgett by the score of nine legs to six and should take heart from pushing ‘The Power’ to the limit.
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