BDO World Darts: Martin Adams beats Glen Durrant to set up final

Adams has won the title three times - in 2007, 2010 and 2011

Martin Adams edged an engrossing semi-final with Glen Durrant to set up a meeting with Scott Mitchell in Sunday's BDO World Championship final.

In a match of high drama and immense quality between the two Englishmen, three-time champion Adams prevailed 6-5 to knock out seventh seed Durrant.

Adams, 58, also missed a shot at double 12 for a nine-dart finish.

A 6-0 win over Canadian qualifier Jeff Smith sent Mitchell, 44, through to his first world final.

While their encounter was a one-sided affair, the match between Middlesbrough's Durrant and Lincolnshire-based Adams was one that will live long in the memories of a captivated sell-out crowd at Lakeside.

In the first leg of the seventh set, with the match finely poised at 3-3, number three seed Adams came within millimetres of the second nine-darter in BDO World Championship history.

His effort at double 12 landed just inside the wire and, to add to Adams' disappointment, Durrant won the leg to go in front for the first time.

It would have been the first perfect leg since Paul Lim achieved the feat in 1990.

The exceptional standard continued all the way to a nervy 11th set.

Durrant missed three darts to win the match, while Adams failed with an attempt at double nine, before the latter eventually came through by five legs to three in the decider.

Adams - the champion in 2007, 2010 and 2011 - will now appear in his fifth World Championship final.

"It's all a bit of a blur apart from the nine-darter I missed," he told BT Sport. "The title means everything to me. I've had a couple of bad years, but 'Wolfie' is back."

In contrast, fourth seed Mitchell's progression was rarely in doubt after he won a tight opening set against Smith.

"I'm just a county player from Dorset who has played for England a couple of times and been here at Lakeside a few times," he told BBC Sport.

"This is what the BDO can do for you. You can come straight off the street and be here."