Nathan Aspinall (Lawrence Lustig/PDC)

Darts results: Nathan Aspinall hits nine-dart finish en route to winning Players Championship Two in Barnsley

By Chris Hammer

Darts

Tue February 25, 2020 · 5y ago

Nathan Aspinall hit a nine-dart finish against world champion Peter Wright before thrashing Gerwyn Price 8-3 as he claimed his fourth PDC title at Players Championship Two on Sunday.

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The defending UK Open champion, whose sparkling 2019 helped him soar into the world's top 10, now has four PDC titles in a career that has gone from strength to strength in double-quick time since bagging his first less than 18 months ago.

That came not long before his unforgettable comeback against Price at the World Championship that began a life-changing run to the semi-finals while the Welshman was also one of Aspinall's victims during his maiden televised success at the UK Open last March.

The Premier League debutant, who reached the last four at the Ally Pally once again before repeating the feat at last weekend's season-opening Masters, averaged 101 in an impressive victory over the world number three to collect the top prize of £10,000 at the Barnsley Metrodome - but it was his match against Wright in the quarter-finals that caught darting fire.

Aspinall v Price | Players Championship 2 Final

Aspinall hit a nine-darter in the ninth leg of a spectacular 6-4 victory over Snakebite, which he polished off with a 137 checkout, and only two of the 10 played was won with 14 darts or more.

The Stockport averaged 117.5 compared to the world champion's 113.7 while he fired in two more maximums than his opponent with seven.

Aspinall recorded two other 100+ averages during the day, with a mark of 103.2 helping him thrash Gabriel Clemens 7-0 in the semi-finals and an effort of 103.3 being crucial in helping him see off Keegan Brown 6-5 in the last 32. His other wins were against Carl Wilkinson (6-1), Peter Jacques (6-4) and Jason Lowe (6-3).

"I've never thrown darts like that, the last two hours of play I just felt like I wasn't going to miss," Aspinall told www.pdc.tv. "To throw such a big average against the World Champions makes it even more special.

"This weekend I've felt brilliant and I've beaten some quality players, I'm very happy to win my second ProTour title. I'm still on cloud nine to be in the Premier League. I'm still new to this game, I'm still learning.

"I know what I can do and I want to show it more consistently."

The US Masters champion was incredibly the third player to hit a perfect leg on Sunday, following on from the exploits of Keegan Brown and Scott Baker.

In total there were five nine-dart finishes hit on the opening Pro Tour weekend of the season, with Mickey Mansell and Mike van Duijvenbode also achieving the feat on Saturday. At this rate, last year's record-breaking tally of 49 perfect legs on the whole PDC circuit, which included one televised effort from Michael van Gerwen at the Players Championship Finals, is in grave danger of being eclipsed.

Price, who was knocked out in the third round of Saturday's Players Championship One by eventual champion Gary Anderson, will be encouraged by his run to the final despite coming up just short against the Asp.

The Iceman beat Mike van Duijvenbode 7-4 in the semi-finals while he averaged 106 in a 6-0 thumping of Mickey Mansell in the last eight and also came through a last-leg deciders with Michael Smith and Toni Alcinas. His other victories came against Ryan Joyce (6-0) and John Michael (6-2).

Meanwhile, Anderson couldn't follow his heroics from 24 hours earlier as he crashed out to Steve Beaton in the second round.

Van Gerwen failed to pick up his first title of the season this weekend as he suffered a 6-5 defeat to Jamie Hughes in the last 16, a day after losing to Brendan Dolan in the third round.

It was a landmark day for Lisa Ashton as she secured her first win on the PDC Pro Tour since her historic success at Q School thanks to a 6-3 victory over Germany's Christian Bunse, in which she averaged 100.

The Lancashire Rose was unable to back it up in a 6-2 loss to Darius Labanauskas, who would then also claim a 6-5 victory over Rob Cross.