Top seed Colin Lloyd produced an astonishing fightback last night to keep alive his hopes of winning the Ladbrokes.com World Championship at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet.
The 31-year-old from Essex looked beaten when he trailed 3-1 to Chris Mason, who was giving a masterclass of darting prowess, but made a miraculous recovery to edge into the quarter-finals with a 4-3 win.
Mason, who is rebuilding his career after spending more than a year in prison for aggravated burglary, had been in fine form in his two previous victories and after losing the first set he hit another purple patch.
At one stage 'Mase The Ace' was hitting four out of every five doubles he attempted and the way he was playing would have given 11-time world champion Phil Taylor food for thought.
Lloyd appeared to have given up, tossing away all three darts on one turn at the oche, but Mason has had problems closing out matches before and fate conspired against him again as his opponent gained his second wind.
Gradually 'Jaws' ate away at the deficit and as the contest reached the deciding set he got ahead and wrapped it up with his second dart at double eight.
Lloyd now faces Wayne Mardle in the last eight.
Mardle had earlier got up off the canvas himself as the player nicknamed 'Hawaii 501' for his colourful dress sense battled back from 3-1 down to win 4-3 against Paul Williams following an enigmatic display.
Denis Ovens, who remarkably considering his world ranking of number 12 had never reached the quarter-finals of a major tournament, ended that jinx with a 4-2 success against Roland Scholten.
Fans of the 'Bronzed Adonis' suffered a double shock as Steve Beaton appeared on stage without his trademark mullet - and then tumbled out of the tournament against Andy 'The Hammer' Hamilton.
The loss of his flowing locks had a Samson-like effect on the 14th seed for he slumped to a shock 4-2 defeat against the world number 105.
'Rocket' Ronnie Baxter raised his game when it mattered to reach the last 16 with a 4-2 victory over Circus Tavern debutant Terry Jenkins.
Mark Dudbridge repeated last year's victory over 2003 champion John Part with an impressive 4-2 triumph.
'Flash', runner-up in this year's World Matchplay, looked every inch a player who could feature in the latter stages of the tournament as he averaged 96 each time at the oche.
The 31-year-old from Bristol will next play Ovens on Saturday.
Taylor, meanwhile, who lost only one leg in his opening match against Alex Roy, dropped three to Dennis 'The Menace' Priestley but still completely dominated their contest and predictably prevailed 4-0.
