Taylor is in good form

The second seed was in dominant form against his old rival to cruise into the quarter-finals in Purfleet.

But world number one and top seed Colin Lloyd needed an astonishing fightback to reach the last eight.

The 31-year-old trailed Chris Mason 3-1 but made a miraculous recovery to record a 4-3 victory.

"Chris deserved to win but you have to hit the doubles. I don't know how I did it but I got through," said Lloyd.

"Rocket" Ronnie Baxter survived a fight back to beat Terry Jenkins 4-2 and reach the last 16 of the Ladbrokes World Championship in Purfleet.

Baxter fought off Jenkins

Baxter, the sixth seed, cruised into a 2-0 lead before Jenkins began to hit a number of maximum 180s that helped him pull the scores back to 2-2.

He then edged ahead in set five before Baxter stepped up a gear to win the tie and book a clash against Bob Anderson.

"Bob is always dangerous and has years of experience behind him," said Baxter.

Denis Ovens reached the quarter-finals of a major event for the first time with a 4-2 win against Roland Scholten.

He will play Mark Dudbridge in the last eight, who repeated last year's victory over 2003 champion John Part with an impressive 4-2 triumph.

'Flash' Dunbridge, 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.

"If I keep playing like that I can get through to the semi-finals," he said. "My stats would compete with the rest of the players in the event except Phil Taylor."

Earlier Wayne Mardle produced an amazing fight back to become the first man to reach the quarter-finals.

Mardle battled back from 3-1 down to win 4-3 against Paul Williams.

Earlier Steve Beaton, minus his trademark mullet haircut, was beaten by Andy Hamilton.

The 14th seed slumped to a shock 4-2 defeat against world number 105 Hamilton, who now plays fellow qualifier Josephus Schenk.