Mervyn King tonight walked into a storm surrounding his darts future after staging a brilliant recovery to reach the semi-finals of the Lakeside World Championship in Frimley Green.
The fifth seed was 3-0 down to Tony Eccles, who also missed three darts to take the fourth set, but hit back to win 5-4 and book a mouth-watering clash with world number one Martin Adams.
But as soon as he left the arena and entered the players' lounge, the 40-year-old became involved in a stormy interview with the BBC's Ray Stubbs in which he threatened to walk out of the event.
The furore was sparked by a newspaper article claiming King was set to leave the British Darts Organisation and join the rival Professional Darts Corporation.
King, however, is now obliged to return to the Lakeside World Championship in 2008 under the terms of a contract he has signed that binds all semi-finalists to the event for the following year.
That would preclude him from leaving for the PDC, as Raymond van Barneveld did last year due to a clause he had inserted in his contract.
According to the BDO, the Great Yarmouth-based player has said he would rather quit darts than move to the PDC, and King expressed his anger tonight at the continued speculation.
In his interview with Stubbs, which he curtailed abruptly, King said: 'Someone put a lot of stuff in the newspaper today about me moving to the PDC. Everyone has been in my face all day and that's the last thing I wanted when I had a quarter-final to play.
'I've said what I had to say to (press officer) Robert Holmes of the BDO and if that's not good enough for other people then I'm sorry.
'I nearly packed my darts away and went home today. You nearly didn't have a quarter-final. It was that close to me walking away from this.
'I'm really not happy with the treatment I've had today, not just from one person but from a lot of people who I have known for many years.
'I have been made an offer (by the PDC). I haven't accepted it. I've told Robert Holmes what I'm doing.
'It's not just the players, it's the organisation as well. What we read in the papers isn't always true. They have known me for a lot of years. If they really need to ask me they don't really know me.
'Why should I stand here and be put on the spot? If it carries on I'm going to walk. I might walk tomorrow if you carry on like this. If you want to know, go and see Robert Holmes, end of subject.'
Holmes was immediately questioned on the matter and said: 'Mervyn told me he would rather pack up darts than play for the PDC, that he was staying with the BDO. We respect him and if he has told me that, I believe him.
'He is now contracted to come back here next year and if he didn't, the BDO would have to take legal action. That's what the contract is all about. But we obviously don't want to do that because Merv has given us his assurance.'
Earlier, Adams repeated his 5-3 quarter-final victory over Ted Hankey of two years ago to reach the last four.
The top seed made a timely breakthrough against the throw in the eighth set, and finally hit the winning double five after missing seven match darts as both men struggled with their finishing.
'It feels absolutely marvellous to be in the semi-finals again,' said England captain Adams, through to this stage for the third consecutive year and who lost the 2005 final to new PDC champion Van Barneveld.
