MARK WALSH 16-14 TED HANKEY

MARK WALSH won through to only the second televised semi-final of his career with a thrilling 16-14 win over battling Ted Hankey at the William Hill Grand Slam of Darts.

The Hertfordshire ace, whose only similar success in a televised major came when he reached the 2005 UK Open final, continued a superb debut at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall with a clinical defeat of the two-time World Champion.

Walsh led 8-3 and 15-9 in the race to 16 legs before Hankey took five straight legs to threaten an incredible comeback, finding his range on the doubles which had deserted him earlier in the contest.

Walsh missed five match darts as the tension mounted, but he regained his composure to finish 90 for a place in Sunday's semi-finals, where he meets Gary Anderson or Terry Jenkins.

"At 15-10 I thought the game would be over soon and then he started coming back," admitted Walsh.

"I started to doubt myself and I thought I'd thrown it away, but he missed his chance and I took the 90 out."

Although Hankey took the game's opening leg, he missed two early darts at a double in a taste of the finishing problems he would suffer throughout the game.

Walsh hit a 174 before levelling on double top in the second, and stepped in to punish Hankey's misses in the next two to move 3-1 up courtesy of double four and double ten.

Walsh also landed a 180 in the fifth leg, but Hankey checked out 101 to cut the gap to 3-2, and after sharing the next two it was the Hertfordshire thrower who took command by winning four successive legs.

Hankey missed doubles to win three of them as his woes on double top and ten continued, with Walsh capitalising to move 8-3 up.

Hankey won the 12th, following up a 180 with a double top finish, and also landed a maximum in the next only to see Walsh follow up his earlier 180 with tops.

Walsh then finished 122 to move 10-4 up, and he bettered that with a 124 checkout after Hankey landed double 12 to move 11-5 up.

The next six legs were shared as Walsh moved two away from the win at 14-8, before a miss at tops from Walsh saw Hankey hit double ten to reduce the gap to five legs.

Walsh, though, hit a 180 and stepped in following a missed double ten from the Telford thrower to hit tops and move to the brink of victory - only for Hankey to spring to life.

A pair of double ten finishes won Hankey the next two legs as he fought back, and after trading 180s with Walsh he took out double two to reduce the gap to 15-12.

He posted another 180 in a 14-darter to take the next as Walsh missed tops for a 120 checkout and the match - and the drama continued as Hankey took a fifth successive leg in thrilling fashion.

Walsh opened with seven perfect darts but hit a three instead of treble 19 as his bid for a nine-darter went begging, and then after leaving 24 he missed two darts at double 12 and one at double six as Hankey posted double eight to keep the match alive at 15-14.

Walsh's double trouble continued when he left 90 in the next, landing treble 20 but missing double 15 and then bursting his score - but Hankey crucially missed three darts at double 16 and he returned to finish the combination at the second time of asking to take the win.

Hankey admitted: "I missed an awful lot of doubles early on and I was always chasing the game.

"It didn't seem to go for me early on but I'm happy. I played well enough and it just wasn't good enough on the day, but I reached the quarter-finals and enjoyed the week.

"Mark played great, he was superb and I wish him the best of luck in the semis."