Limerick arrowsmith William O'Connor hitting bullseye at UK Open

LIMERICK arrowsmith William O'Connor will look to continue his excellent run at the Ladbrokes UK Open this Saturday.

Cappamore man O'Connor defeated Jan Dekker in Round 3 of the prestigious event on Friday afternoon, before edging past England's Dave Chisnall in the fourth round at Butlin's Minehead Resort on Friday evening.

Thirty three-year-old O'Connor, nicknamed The Magpie', fought off a strong fightback from Chisnall to claim a narrow 10-8 win. Chisnall had begun the game wearing glasses, removed them at 5-0 down before hitting back from a seven-leg deficit to trail 8-7 at one stage.

However, a composed O'Connor held his nerve impressively to complete a 10-8 victory.

World Cup finalist from 2019 O'Connor will now face Northern Ireland's Daryl Gurney in a mouth-watering fifth round clash on Saturday afternoon.

Gurney has a working ranking of eight, while Limerick man O'Connor, who took part in the Premier League leg held in Dublin recently is ranked 36.

The unique tournament, played across eight boards simultaneously in the early rounds, sees 160 players competing in the 'festival of darts' until tomorrow, Sunday.

Players are competing for a £100,000 top prize, with a total prize fund of £450,000 on offer being paid down to the last 96.

The 159-player, multi-board tournament began with a bumper day of darts on Friday, with the opening four rounds seeing the field whittled down to 32 competitors