ANDY JENKINS came within a wire of a place in the Budweiser UK Open final at Bolton's Reebok Stadium last night.

The Cosham bricklayer was involved in a nerve-jangling, tit-for-tat semi-final with Canadian John Part who eventually lost out to Dutchman Roland Scholten.

After 14 legs Jenkins and former world champion Part stood on the oche at seven legs apiece, knowing whoever won the next game was in the final.

And it looked odds on that Jenkins, pictured above, would claim the place after taking first throw advantage off Part with a string of high scores, including a timely 180.

But doubles let Jenkins down just when he needed them. The man nicknamed 'Rocky' had three darts to get 25 but grazed the double eight and four wires. That was enough to allow Part to check out on 60 and take his place in the final.

Jenkins had played some wonderful darts throughout the three-day tournament and was given the tough task of getting past fellow Hampshire player and best friend Colin Monk in round five, after seeing off the challenges of Michael Barnard (8-7) and Martyn Freeman who he destroyed with a whitewash (8-0).

Monk had come out on top when the two buddies last met in a televised match - beating Jenkins 3-1 in the Embassy World Championship at Frimley Green in 2000 - and looked in good form at the Reebok Stadium.

The former World Master had already beaten Lee Palfreyman 5-4 in round one after being 4-0 down and went on to knock out Mark Holyoake 5-2 in the second round. Monk then beat Wayne Jones 8-2 and David Platt 8-4.

But it was Jenkins who raced into a 5-0 lead against his mate and held off a brave recovery from Monk to win 8-6.

Three other Hampshire players were in action at the stadium over the weekend.

Bob Crawley went out in round one to Derek Williams, followed by Sam Rooney in the second round. Rooney defeated James Wheatley 5-2 but then lost out to Kent's Matt Clark.

James Wade beat Gary Stephens 5-3 and Darren Webster 8-7 before losing out to Colin Lloyd in a round four nailbiter that ended up 8-7 in Lloyd's favour.

The contest is tagged the 'FA Cup' of darts and pitches unknown qualifiers and fringe players against the cream of the crop.

And, like the FA Cup, there were plenty of upsets along the way - Rod Harrington, Shayne Burgess, former world champion Ritchie Burnett and Alex Roy going out on day one.

Phil Taylor lost out to Part in the quarter-finals but stole the show on day two with his second live nine-dart check-out.