2355: If Taylor has cooled down by now, he will have seen one of the sport's gentlemen Dennis Priestley bow out.

I don't think it's overly reassuring to hear the crowd call out: "Come on grandad" - even if it's your own family doing the shouting!

The No3 seed felt all his years as he failed to cope with Andy Hamilton.

Hamilton marches on to a quarter-final showdown and Priestley can put get his feet and put his slippers on.

2205: Benjamin Franklin once remarked that there is nothing certain in this world apart from death and taxes.

If the great American statesman could have stayed around for another century or more, he might have added Phil Taylor wins darts matches.

Franklin knew all about 'The Power'. He invented the lightning conductor and Taylor re-invented the sport.

His third-round opponent Chris Mason set up a potentially explosive clash by heaping abuse on the Stoke legend in the morning tabloids.

He exited barely an hour later beaten by four sets to nil with hardly a handshake to acknowledge Taylor's superiority.

Taylor, who came in for plenty of GBH of the earhole from Mason's manic fans during the contest, struggled to relish the imperious victory.

When sporting superstars are taken for granted, they end up being missed more when they have gone.

2055: Sandwiched between the heroics of Andy Jenkins and the arrival of 'The Power', Terry Jenkins and James Wade had the chance to supply a tasty filling.

Maybe smoked salmon, beluga caviar, foie gras? What the Purfleet hordes got was - watercress.

Jenkins joined his namesake in the quarter-finals after coming from 3-1 down but there the similarity to top-class sport ended.

Wade managed to go from match control to out of control in the space of half an hour.

A game that would not have looked out of place in the Dog and Duck in New Malden High Street degenerated into fistfuls of arrows at doubles and three-dart averages barely passing the 70 mark.

A repeat of that will surely result in a very quick and ignominious last eight exit.

1650: There is always a point in any football World Cup when one game inspires the tournament.

It may be Brazilians turning on the party tricks or a huge odds underdog fighting back to beat one of the game's superpowers.

Andy Jenkins' victory over Adrian Lewis is the match that has set this year's contest at Circus Tavern alight.

It started in predictable fashio with favourite Lewis peppering the treble 20s and pushing his three-dart average close to the 100 mark.

The result was a two sets to nil lead and a stunned Jenkins wondering what to do to next.

Lewis had been thrown last year by an unsavoury run-in with Peter 'One Dart' Manley and Jenkins may have contemplated only confrontational tactics would halt Lewis' march into the quarter-finals.

However, Manley could have a confrontation in an empty house and the bovver never worked for 'One Dart' when pitched eventually against Phil 'Many Darts' Taylor.

Jenkins simply raised his game to an astonishing level and within half an hour was 3-2 up.

Sid Waddell summoned up a whole new volume of adjectives as Lewis refused to lie down and the game went into the final set.

Both players touched knuckles 'Tiger Woods' style as they traded 180s but the gutsy Jenkins stood firm when it mattered and almost collapsed after such a draining contest.

Taylor is Taylor but even 'The Power' will have trouble topping this contest.

1500: Colin Osborne has caused a huge shock here at the Circus Tavern by knocking out Roland Scholten.

It's such a shame for the Dutchman, who has the largest Adams' Apple in darts, because he worked so hard to defeat Alex Roy in a classic encounter last night.

Now I can't help but have that feeling of, "what's the point in that."

Scholten is one of my favourites and it's depressing to be so flat after such an incredible high not that long ago.

But he must be feeling ten times worse than me and all his other fans combined as he dwells on what could have been.

1345: The World Championship has reached the business end of the tournament and it's easy to see why - Sky television have decided to interview both players after a match rather than just the winner.

Darren Webster has just beaten Wynand Havenga in the first of today's matches to set up a quarter-final clash with Phil Taylor or Chris Mason but the the TV cameras were just as interested to focus on the South African loser.