A DARTS player has climbed up the world rankings and following in the footsteps of Phil Taylor by clinching victory in the Switzerland Open.

Jim Williams, from Shobdon, has been plying his trade in the British Darts Organisation (BDO) since 2012 and is now ranked ninth in the world following the win.

The 32-year-old joiner, was10th seed ahead of the Zurich tournament last weekend which had 680 entries.

Williams nearly suffered a first round defeat to one of the best local players who missed two darts to win before the Herefordshire thrower came from behind to win 2-1 in sets.

After surviving the early scare he sailed through the next four rounds before beating Welsh international team-mate and captain Martin Phillips in the last-32.

His winning streak continued to the final where he met tournament favourite and world number two ranked Mark McGeeney.

Despite losing the first set Williams hit an average score of 97 to win the next four set and the match 4-1.

"The tournament was all quite close between the top 20 players in the world," said Williams.

"Mark was the in-form player at the moment so it was good to beat him."

It was Williams' third tournament win at that level after also winning the Antwerp and Turkish Open in 2015.

The win catapulted Williams up to ninth in the BDO World Rankings ahead of the British Open held in Selsey this weekend.

"It was one of the bigger tournaments that we play in to get ranking points ahead of the World Cup events," added Williams.

"My best world ranking position has been six which was two years ago, but since then I slipped down to 18th. I am now finishing consistently in the top 10 in tournaments. The ranking means that I don't meet the more consistent players until the last-32 stage of tournaments."