World's best pair lead the way at Glades

World champion Phil Taylor, the World No 2, and Colin Lloyd, who has topped the world rankings for most of the season, will be trying to maintain their unbeaten form in the seventh round of the 888.com Premier League Darts tournament at the Glades Arena.

They will be joining five other top professionals in the competition, which carries £150,000 in prize money on a five-month nationwide tour.

The 550 tickets for the evening, on Thursday, April 28, sold out in just two hours, making it the fastest-selling event ever held at the Kidderminster venue.

The sport has such a huge following across the country that there was massive interest once darts websites and Sky Sports, which is televising the evening, announced tickets were on sale. People travelled hundreds of miles to make sure of a seat and one fan made the trip from Blackpool to buy 50.

The star-studded darts night, in association with the Shuttle/Times & News, will be staged little more than two months after world snooker champion Ronnie O'Sullivan and three other world-ranked players took centre stage.

The darts league brings seven of the world's top 10 players to Wyre Forest for a unique league competition which started at Stoke in January and finishes at Bradford in May.

Joining Taylor and Lloyd on the oche in Kidderminster will be Peter Manley, John Part and Roland Scholten, who are ranked three, four and five in the world. Wayne Mardle, ranked eighth and Mark Dudbridge, 10th, complete the line-up.

The league offers a prize of £50,000 to the eventual winner and £30,000 to the runner-up. The players will face each other in 12-game matches over 501 at Kidderminster.

Live TV coverage of the action will be beamed across the world by Sky Sports between 7pm and 11pm.

Before the players rolled in to Plymouth for tonight's sixth round of the premier league, Taylor and Lloyd were leading the way with unbeaten records.

Taylor had won five of his first six matches and had taken ll points out of a possible 12.

Lloyd was four points behind with seven points from five outings, which had yeidled two wins and three draws.

Results so far:

Stoke: Mardle 5, Taylor 7; Part 6, Scholten 6; Manley 4, Dudbridge 8; Taylor 6, Lloyd 6.

Reading: Dudbridge 5, Scholten 7; Mardle 4, Manley 8; Lloyd 9, Part 3; Scholten 2, Taylor 10.

Taunton: Lloyd 6, Dudbridge 6; Part 9, Mardle 3; Manley 6, Scholten 6; Dudbridge 5, Taylor 7.

Norwich: Taylor 11, Mardle 1; Lloyd 8, Manley 4; Dudbridge 5, Part 7; Scholten 4, Mardle 8.

Carlisle: Taylor 8, Manley 4; Scholten 7, Dudbridge 5; Lloyd 6, Mardle 6; Manley 6, Part 6.

Rounds to come: Plymouth (tonight), Kidderminster, Widnes, Doncaster, Colchester, Bradford (Final).

LATEST TABLE

(Before tonight's matches at Plymouth)

P W D L +/- Pts

Phil Taylor 6 5 1 0 +26 11

Colin Lloyd 5 2 3 0 +10 7

John Part 5 2 2 1 +2 6

Roland Scholten 6 2 2 2 -8 6

Peter Manley 6 1 2 3 -8 4

Mark Dudbridge 6 1 1 4 -4 3

Wayne Mardle 6 1 1 4 -18 3

Record success for Phil is Taylor-made

ARGUABLY the best player ever to grace an oche, Phil Taylor has been described by some sports writers as Britain's greatest ever sportsman.

Taylor's darting career began in the local leagues of Burslem and Stoke-on-Trent before he met Eric Bristow in the late 1980s.

Bristow was persuaded to sponsor Taylor in his ambition to turn professional, and did so to the tune of £10,000.

That was encouragement enough for the man known as 'The Power'.

Taylor, subsequently burst onto the scene in 1988, becoming the first unranked player to win the Canadian Open, and followed that up with a stunning success over his mentor, Bristow, in the Embassy Championship in 1990.

The Power surged to the world number one ranking in double-quick time, picking up the World Masters and Europe Cup singles and pairs titles along the way.

He regained the Embassy title in 1992 and added the UK Masters in 1994 before making his mark on the PDC's new World Championship, which he has now won 10 times, making 12 world titles in total.

Although he lost the first final to Dennis Priestley, Taylor bounced back in 1995 and won an incredible eight World Championships in succession before John Part's 7-6 triumph in 2003.

He has also dominated the rest of the PDC scene during the past decade, with seven World Matchplay titles, five World Grand Prix wins and triumphs in the newer Las Vegas Desert Classic and UK Open tournaments.

Taylor has won over 100 World Ranking titles during his career.

Lloyd banks on repeat of glory

COLIN Lloyd is ban-king on a repeat performance on the circuit after celebrating his most successful 12 months in the game in 2004.

Lloyd, who has been on the PDC scene since 1999, won his first televised competition and reached the number one spot in the world rankings last year.

A big Colchester United supporter, his first triumph came at the Eastbourne Open in his debut year, and he followed that up with a quarter-final appearance on his World Matchplay debut.

He won the North American Pairs with Alan Warriner the following year as he continued to steadily develop his game, also reaching the last eight in the World Grand Prix and Irish Masters.

Lloyd began to live up to his potential in 2002, beginning the year by reaching the semi-finals of the World Championship, where he lost to Peter Manley.

He also went on to win the Antwerp Open, 128 Pro Classic and Witch City Open Pairs.

Lloyd retained the Antwerp Open in 2003 and went on to become the only player to complete the 'treble' in the event 12 months later.

He also added the Holland Open, Le Skratch Montreal Open, West Tyrone Open, Primus Masters and the Irish PDPA Players Champi-onship titles after becoming a full-time professional darts player.

His crowning moment was to come in October 2004 at the CityWest Hotel in Dublin, when he saw off Denis Ovens, Dennis Smith, Gary Welding, Ronnie Baxter and Alan Warriner to finally triumph in a major at the World Grand Prix.

That victory, and his superb form in Opens throughout the year, ensured Lloyd entered the 2005 World Darts Championship as the number one seed.

Ex-accountant adds up to 501

AFTER winning his first darts competition in the aptly-named 'Double Top' pub at the age of 13 there was only ever going to be one path for Wayne Mardle.

That success whet the naturally talented Londoner's appetite and after taking up the sport as an 11-year-old in 1984, he turned professional two years ago.

As a youngster, Mardle, now nicknamed Hawaii 501, went on to win the British Teenage Open and the British Youth Championship before his first senior tournament win, in the 1993 Highfields Open.

Five years later, he won the London Open before retaining his Highfields Open title and triumphing in the Harrows Open.

He was also a regular on the Essex and London Super League scene by this time, and is a two-time singles winner as well as holding a record 40.62 average.

In 2000, Mardle's rise to fame continued, winning pairs titles in Finland and Sweden as well as finishing as the runner-up in the British Open and hitting a nine-dart finish in the Dutch Open.

He was to reach the semi-final of the 2001 Embassy Championship before moving to the PDC, where his entertaining style made him an instant hit.

The 2002 Las Vegas Desert Classic saw him make his debut in the professional ranks, and he reached the final of that tournament two years later.

He also reached the final of the 2003 World Matchplay and left his job as an accountant at the start of the following year to pursue his dream of lifting major titles on a regular basis.

Fine Dutch export

ROLAND Scholten is regarded as one of the best darters ever to come out of Holland.

Scholten began playing darts in the early 1980s, and within two years was ranking in the top 16 in Holland.

The 40-year-old Dutchman made his first national appearance in 1985, and began playing in tournaments around the world during the same year.

His first major win came in the World Championship Singles in Las Vegas in 1993, and he also won the World Cup Pairs with Raymond Van Barneveld in 1997.

Scholten added a lengthy list of Open victories, secured both in his homeland and across the continent in Russia, Sweden and Britain, to establish himself in the top three of the BDO world rankings.

Nicknamed 'The Tripod', he joined the PDC in 2000. Since turning fully professional, he has added titles in the Primus Masters and completed the double at Eastbourne in 2004 before winning his first televised tournament in the UK Open.

Not just a Flash in pan

MARK Dudbridge's reputation as one on the rising stars of the PDC has been confirmed by two appearances in major finals in the past year.

Dudbridge followed his father into the game at the age of 12, playing his first league game two years later.

He was tipped for great things during the early days, which included wins at the Pontins Open.

Despite deciding to join the PDC and make a serious bid for glory in 2002, Dudbridge visited Bridlington to take part in the World Masters in October of that year. He beat former World Champions Raymond Van Barneveld and Steve Beaton on his way to a stunning victory, which took him to number one in the BDO rankings.

After a year on the PDC circuit, when he won a UK Open event in Manchester and the Irish Classic, Dudbridge qualified by right for the 2004 PDC World Darts Championship.

'Flash', as he is now known, took Purfleet by storm, reaching the quarter-final with victories over Beaton and reigning champion John Part.

He was to reach his first major final six months later, eventually losing 18-8 to Phil Taylor after a sensational run at the World Matchplay.

Dudbridge tasted victory in the PDPA Players Champion-ship in Edinburgh last November, starting a run of form which would see him go even better on his second appearance at the Circus Tavern.

Dudbridge again saw off Part, after defeating Richie Burnett in his third round game, and he also ended the hopes of Denis Ovens and Mardle to reach the World Championship final.

Taylor once again edged him out with a 7-4 win, but the achievement confirmed Dudbridge's place among the sport's elite with a great future predicted by leading pundits.

Half of famous couple

PETER Manley enjoyed a rapid rise to fame in the late 1990s, and is now established among the top players in the sport after four years in the upper reaches of the world rankings.

Originally from Cheam in Surrey, but now based in Carlisle, Manley bought his darts when he was 13 - and the £6 copper tungsten set lasted for 29 years until he joined Unicorn in 2004.

Manley had plenty of success in holiday camp tournaments before making his mark on the big stage by reaching the final of the 1995 European Masters.

A win in the Webster's 150 Championship the following year led to him joining the PDC, and he has enjoyed great success on the professional circuit since.

He became world number one within four years, a period which also saw him win the North American Open and Vauxhall Open and reach the final of the World Championship and World Matchplay.

The 43-year-old father-of-two reached the World Championship final for a second time in 2002, and was again defeated by Phil Taylor.

But he has been a consistent performer on the circuit since then, winning three UK Open Regional Finals and a host of other events.

He finally won a coveted televised event in 2003, defeating John Part to win the second Las Vegas Desert Classic.

Manley is one half of darts' most famous couple, and he tied the knot with leading lady player Crissy Howatt in Las Vegas in 2004, having met her following his win in the England Open five years earlier.

He is chairman of the Professional Dart Players Association.

John looking the part

JOHN Part is acknowledged as one of the leading darts players of the past decade after winning two World Championships and a host of other titles.

The greatest North American darts player in history, John began playing after receiving a dartboard for Christmas in 1987.

His first singles title came in 1991 in the Syracuse Open, New York State, and he became the Canadian number one in 1993, a year which also saw him represent his country in the World Cup and win the Gold Medal in the pairs.

John's rise to stardom continued in fairytale style at the start of the following year, when he entered the Embassy World Championship for the first time and, incredibly, went on to win the event.

The 'unknown' white-washed Bobby George 6-0 in the final to become the first overseas winner of the tournament.

Three years later, John moved over to the PDC and he was also inducted into the Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

He reached his first PDC World Championship final in 2001, being defeated by Phil Taylor, and he also lost in the World Matchplay and World Grand Prix finals the following year.

Part finally got the measure of Taylor in 2003, defeating him 7-6 in the World Championship final to complete a memorable double.

Part will renew his rivalry with Taylor at Kidderminster after keeping himself in contention with a solid start to his Premier League Darts campaign, kicking off with two victories and two draws from his first five matches.