Gerwyn Price (Picture: Lawrence Lustig/PDC)

Darts results: Gerwyn Price wins back-to-back PDC titles with a 170 checkout finish to Sunday's Players Championship Six

By Chris Hammer

10:26 · MON February 25, 2019

Gerwyn Price maintained his incredible run of form by winning back-to-back Players Championship tournaments thanks to a string of stunning performances in one weekend at the Barnsley Metrodome.

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The Welshman clinched the fifth PDC darts title of his career on Saturday, averaging 100+ in five of his seven games including a mark of 109.7 against Gabriel Clemens, but he raised the bar even higher throughout Sunday before a 170 checkout completed an 8-4 victory over Ricky Evans in the final.

Price, who also remains unbeaten in this season's Premier League after three games with a win and two dramatic draws, averaged over a ton in his first four games with a best of 112.7 coming in his 6-0 thrashing of Zoran Lerchbacher while he dipped just under during his 6-4 triumph over Adrian Lewis in the quarter-finals.

The Iceman then defeated the man who memorably stunned him at the World Championship - Nathan Aspinall - for the second time in a week, averaging 106 in a thumping 7-2 triumph that sealed his place in back-to-back finals.

Evans had ended a five-year wait for a Players Championship final spot thanks to a hard-fought 7-4 victory over Danny Noppert in which both players averaged in the 80s but he'd previously played much better in seeing off Adrian Gray (6-1), Scott Baker (6-2), Daryl Gurney (6-5), Kryzysztof Ratajski (6-1) and Kyle Anderson (6-4).

However, Price comfortably dealt with the rapid-throwing Englishman, averaging 97 in an 8-4 victory, finishing it off in style with a 170 checkout to pick up another cheque for £10,000.

Price, who becomes the 13th ProTour weekend double-event winner in PDC history, told www.pdc.tv: "This weekend I proved to myself and a lot of people that I can play top quality darts. It's all a case of having confidence in myself, believing in my ability and I think I played phenomenally well all day.

"I'm happy with my consistency over the weekend and I couldn't have asked for a better way to win it than with a 170. Hopefully now I can carry this form into the Premier League and I can keep performing to this standard and win another TV title along the way."

The former rugby player broke Evans' throw twice in the opening four legs to romp into a 4-0 lead and although the Kettering thrower battled back to take the next three, he pinned tops with his last dart in hand to go 5-3 up before a 105 checkout saw him take full command again.

After moving to within one leg of the title he spurned eight match darts but he quickly put those behind him to land that showstopping finish.

It all means that over the weekend, Price won all 14 of his matches, which also included a 6-0 and 6-3 victories over Josh Payne and David Pallett respectively on Sunday, and averaged over 100 on 10 occasions, with his best being the 112.7 against Lerchbacher. His overall average was 101.95 and here below is some more great stats from @CarlyFletch.

If you take into account his performances in last Sunday's Players Championship Four, he's won 19 out of 21 (including a Premier League draw in Dublin on Thursday) and averaged 100+ 13 times during this incredible purple patch which follows a subdued period that followed his controversial success in last year's Grand Slam of Darts final against Gary Anderson.

Three successive first-round defeats followed his glorious night in Wolverhampton and he cut a subdued figure at the season-opening Masters which came shortly after he was hit with a £21,500 and a three-month suspended sentence that clearly deflated him.

But having come off social media, focused on his game and reengaged with his style of play without overstepping the mark, he's now producing the kind of world class darts that could well see him win over more supporters when he returns to the stage environment.

Meanwhile there was another nine-dart finish in Barnsley thanks to Ritchie Edhouse's perfect leg in his defeat to Danny Noppert, which followed on from the two hit on Saturday. Overall this season there have been 10 nine-darters.

Noppert went on to reach his second successive semi-final while his last eight victim John Henderson had reached his fourth quarter-final from the six Players Championship events this season.

There was disappointment for Rob Cross, who saw his 104.4 averaged defied by Ratajski in the last 32 as the impressive Pole posted a mark of 105.6 in a 6-2 victory, while fellow Premier League stars Raymond van Barneveld, Peter Wright, Mensur Suljovic and Michael Smith crashed out in the opening round to Jermaine Wattimena, Benito van de Pas, Maik Kuivenhoven and Rob Meulenkamp respectively.

Michael van Gerwen did not enter in either of the weekend's events and James Wade wasn't involved on Sunday having reached the quarter-finals on Saturday.

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