Gary Anderson

Gary Anderson claims his third darts title in a week by winning Players Championship Four

Darts

Sun March 11, 2018 · 7y ago

Gary Anderson completed a brilliant weekend double by claiming victory in Players Championship Four on Sunday with a 6-2 win over Jeffrey de Zwaan in the final.

The Scot had gone all the way to victory in Saturday's third £75,000 Players Championship of 2018, before completing a perfect weekend 24 hours later.

With Anderson having claimed the Coral UK Open title last weekend in Minehead before sharing the spoils with Daryl Gurney in the Unibet Premier League on Thursday, success at the Barnsley Metrdome extended his unbeaten run to 22 matches.

There was also perfection struck on the floor once more in Barnsley, as Jamie Lewis landed a nine-dart finish in the second round of the event.

Anderson’s intent in the final was clear from the off as he landed a 180 with his first visit to the board, before finding double ten to break and take the lead against world number two Wright.

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The two-time World Champion’s best leg of the final came in the third as he took just 12 darts to break once more and lead 3-0.

He was at it again in the fifth, breaking throw with a 76 checkout to lead 5-0, before holding in the sixth leg to secure an incredible whitewash victory over his Scottish World Cup team-mate.

However, Anderson’s performance of the day came in a 6-0 whitewash of World Champion Rob Cross in the last 16 stage.

Averaging a staggering 108.7, the UK Open Champion landed three bullseye finishes, including a 170 checkout, on his way to victory over another of his Unibet Premier League rivals.

He then bettered that average in the last four, beating World Championship semi-finalist Lewis with a brilliant 109.7 average as the Welshman was unable to follow up his earlier perfect leg by reaching the final.

It wasn’t all plain sailing for Anderson, however, as he was forced to recover from 5-1 down beat Terry Jenkins in his opening game.

He was then pushed hard in respective 6-4 victories over Gary Eastwood and Simon Stevenson, and beat Steve Hine 6-3 in his quarter-final clash.

Saturday's progression to the final was a welcome run Wright, who crashed out in the defence of his UK Open title last weekend at the first hurdle and suffered a heavy defeat to Mensur Suljovic in the Premier League on Thursday.

To start the day, Wright edged out youngster Chris Quantock 6-3 and then survived scares against Steve Lennon and Jermaine Wattimena as he picked up 6-5 victories.

Wright’s performance of the day came in the last 16 as he whitewashed Darren Webster, before beating Brendan Dolan and Jeffrey de Graaf 6-3 to reach the final.

Lewis, who beat Diogo Portela 6-3 in the opening round, found his moment of perfection with two 180s and a 141 checkout to level at 5-5 against Adam Hunt in the second round, before holding his throw to seal victory.

He then beat Stephen Bunting, Danny Noppert and Joe Cullen to reach the semi-finals.

Young Dutchman De Graaf enjoyed his best run on the PDC ProTour as he reached the semi-finals. He started the day with a victory over Robert Marijanovic, before beating Luke Woodhouse.

His biggest scalp came as he defeated Premier League star Daryl Gurney 6-4 in the last 32, and followed that with a last-leg victory over compatriot Jelle Klaasen.

Finally, he sealed his day with a 6-4 win against Richard North to reach the final four, where he ran into Peter Wright.