Wayne Mardle staged the most amazing recovery yet in a tournament full of memorable fightbacks to reach the semi-finals of the Ladbrokes.com World Championship in Purfleet tonight.
The man nicknamed 'Hawaii 501' because of his colourful dress sense rallied from 4-1 down to beat top seed Colin Lloyd 5-4 in a sudden-death deciding leg.
Both of these two 31-year-olds from Essex, who played on the same junior team and remain good friends, had made terrific comebacks earlier in the competition, Lloyd having hit back from the brink to oust Chris Mason.
But it was Mardle, who was two sets down against both his previous opponents, Mark Walsh and Paul Williams, that proved stronger as the match entered its closing stages.
The eighth seed reeled off three consecutive sets to make it 4-4 and there was nothing between the duo as they produced some top-quality darts in the finale to take the contest all the way at 5-5 in legs.
Mardle earned first throw in the decider by getting closer to the bull and then totally outscored the world number one, leaping into the air whenever he hit a 180 or 140 before wrapping it up with a double four.
"I rode my luck a bit, just as I did in my first two matches," said the Dagenham professional. "But I deserved to win it, even at 4-1 down."
"I should never have been so far behind but once it got to 4-4 it was my game and I got away with it."
Mardle's opponent in the last four will be Mark 'Flash' Dudbridge, who wasted seven match darts before seeing off Denis Ovens with a 5-3 win.
But the 31-year-old from Bristol was far from happy with his form and said: I was an absolute mile off my game and so was Denis.
"I didn't feel right and the mistakes crept in but I managed to battle through.
"I felt flat and there was no edge to my game. I knew I wouldn't hit those doubles I missed - it was like there was a big barrier around them."
Dudbridge will take heart from the fact he beat Mardle in the first round of the World Matchplay in Blackpool last summer and believes he can repeat that achievement.
