'The Power' was in ruthless touch yet again at the Motorpoint Arena, easing past Painter 8-2 and then seeing his lead remain at seven points after nearest challenger Raymond van Barneveld was on the wrong end of the same scoreline against Adrian Lewis.

The win capped a mixed evening for world champion Lewis, who, due to the absence of Gary Anderson following the death of his father, was forced to play two matches on Thursday night.

Lewis kicked off Week Eight with a 8-4 reverse at the hands of Andy Hamilton - 'The Hammer's' first victory since the opening night - but was back to his best against Van Barneveld.

And in the other match James Wade produced the performance of the night to register a stunning 8-0 triumph over an out-of-sorts Simon Whitlock.

Thrashing

League-leader Taylor looks destined to finish the standings on top after averaging 113.30 during his thrashing of Painter.

Taylor broke 'The Artist's' first throw of the match and never looked back thereafter to complete a seventh straight win in the competition.

"Kevin pushes you, and pushes you, and pushes you," Taylor told Sky Sports afterwards.

"He wants to win, he tries every dart and that's the sign of a true professional. It's all about winning. You've got to get out the blocks quickly, put them under pressure and win."

The 2009 champion Wade was also on top form and limited Australian opponent Whitlock to just three darts at a double in the match as he recorded the third whitewash in the history of the Premier League.

Whitlock hit a 180 in the first two legs but Wade won both of them nonetheless and then took out 76 to extend his lead to 3-0.

He then missed a pair of darts at double-12 but Whitlock missed bull for an 82 finish and Wade stepped in with double-five, before hitting tops in consecutive legs to make it 6-0.

Wade was flying now and he opened leg seven with a pair of maximums, before eventually hitting double-one to go 7-0 up, and he landed another 180 in the final leg, before completing the thrashing by hitting double-five.

It was Wade's fourth victory of the season and he climbed above Whitlock and into the play-off places after recording the biggest win since Taylor whitewashed Wayne Mardle in 2008.

Speaking afterwards, Wade said: "Simon's one of my best mates in darts and that wasn't nice and it wasn't enjoyable. I think some people are ruthless and some aren't. I don't have the killer instinct to demoralise people."

Ambition

The evening started with a repeat of this year's World Championship final, with Hamilton getting a portion of revenge over Stoke rival Lewis with a highly-impressive 8-4 win.

'The Jackpot' was made to pay for missing a total of 15 darts at doubles as Hamilton capitalised to boost his play-off hopes.

Hamilton said: "I've been playing well all Premier League and tonight I just hit my doubles. I'm a force to be reckoned with.

"As long as I've got the heart and the ambition to play good darts I'll make the last four."

Lewis found his killer touch in the final game, overcoming both the in-form Van Barneveld and a partisan Welsh crowd to prevail 8-2 in some style.

Lewis said: "I averaged 90 against Andy Hamilton which isn't bad but my finishing let me down. I got myself ready for both matches and I went up there against Barney believing I was going to win."