Manley moves up world rankings

Peter Manley moved up four places to 12th in the world rankings after securing a last-four berth in the inaugural PartyPoker.net European Championship in Frankfurt – but he still narrowly missed out on a place in the forthcoming £350,000 Grand Slam of Darts tournament.

The Carlisle ace, who started the year ranked at 13 before slipping to 16 in the PDC Order of Merit, had to reach the final in Germany to qualify for the 32-strong Grand Slam tournament in Wolverhampton later this month, which carries a £100,000 top prize and will be shown live on ITV.

But he went down 11-7 to Stoke star Adrian Lewis in a see-sawing battle at the semi-final stage after the match had been poised at 7-all.

Lewis won the 15th leg against the throw with a fine 14-darter, before an 11-dart finish put him 9-7 up and on his way to victory.

Manley admitted: "I went in front once or twice but struggled to hold my own throw. It wasn’t the best game but we were both playing for some massive rewards and the better man won."

World No 1 Phil Taylor went on to beat his former protege Lewis 11-5 in the final to claim the 50 grand top prize and the European championship.

]The 13-time world champ produced some of the best form of his career on the way to the final, claiming two of the three highest television averages of over 113.

Meanwhile, Manley at least claimed a place on the Wolverhampton oche in the PartyPoker.com Pro-Celebrity Challenge, in the prelude to the Grand Slam.

He will partner poker legend David ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott against James Wade and three-time Olympic javelin medallist Steve Backley, in the quarter-finals on Friday week.

Brian ‘Pecker’ Woods, from Egremont, has qualified to take part in the Grand Slam courtesy of reaching the BDO world championship semi-finals this year.