Darts results: Ian White beats James Wade in the Players Championship Eight final to win his first PDC title of 2020

By Chris Hammer

19:40 · SUN March 15, 2020

Ian White picked up his first PDC title of the season in quite some style as he capped a stunning run of performances with an 8-3 victory over James Wade in the Players Championship Eight final in Barnsley.

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A sparkling Diamond posted six 100+ averages from his seven matches, including a mark of 102 against the Machine, to further underline why he remains one of the most formidable floor players in the world.

Over the 68 legs he played, White finished the day with an astonishing overall average of 103.31, which was particularly indebted to his stunning marks of 111.3 and 109.7 that he reached during his 6-3 and 6-4 victories over John Henderson and Dave Chisnall respectively.

The 49-year-old started the day with a par of 6-4 wins against against William Borland and Diogo Portela, averaging 105 and 102 in the process, while he managed 103.7 in a 6-2 defeat of Stephen Bunting.

It's fair to say his lowly mark of 89 in a 7-4 semi-final triumph over Kim Huybrechts, who finished with five points less, stuck out like a sore thumb but he was back above three figures when competing for the top prize of £10,000.

White increases his career tally of non-televised PDC titles to 13, which includes 10 Players Championship crowns and three on the European Tour, so now it's just a question of when he can transfer this kind of form to the biggest stages.

So @IanDiamondWhite finally gets the title his recent performances have deserved as he claims the #PC8 title. 16 of his last 19 games in PC events he's hit a 100+ average. He hit 24 scores of 171+ today at a rate of 0.35 per leg & registered 14 checkouts between 61-99 #PDCProTour pic.twitter.com/sFvK6DQeD0
— Carl Fletcher (@CarlyFletch) March 15, 2020

While this is White's first title of the season, it would have been his second had he not lost a deciding leg in what was a true classic of a final earlier this season against Krzysztof Ratajski so in many ways this success was on the cards.

The Stoke man told www.pdc.tv: "I've been playing good darts through the year but not been getting the luck, so this title has been coming. The form is coming on, I've had a few problems but I'm sorting myself out and everything is going well.

"A couple of weeks ago Peter Wright was hitting lots of 100-plus averages so that spurred me on to keep up with him. Everyone goes on about my TV form not being as good as my ProTour form but I play good darts on the TV stages, I've hit a few averages over 100.

"I've just run into top class players at their best a few times, I just think I've been unlucky. My heads on this year and I want to stay in that top ten."

A run to the final continues Wade's welcome return to form after a disappointing start to the season in which he'd only managed one quarter-final in his opening nine events prior to this weekend.

On Saturday the 36-year-old posted four 100+ averages, including one of 103 during a victory over White, prior to a semi-final defeat to eventual runner-up Brendan Dolan and he carried this rich vein of form into Sunday's play.

Like Diamond, he too reached a high of 111 in a 6-1 defeat of Jason Lowe while his two other 100+ marks helped him see off Keegan Brown and Ciaran Teehan by 6-4 scorelines.

Wade's other victims were Wesley Harms (6-3), Josh Payne (6-5) and the weekend's surprise package Derk Telnekes (7-2), who went one better than his quarter-final run 24 hours earlier.

As for Michael van Gerwen, he lost 6-5 in the opening round to Maik Kuivenhoven 6-5 while Players Championship Seven winner Nathan Aspinall also crashed out at the same stage to Madars Razma 6-3.

Gary Anderson also fell at the first hurdle to Andy Hamilton (6-4), with fellow Scottish star Peter Wright being whitewashed in the last 16 by Huybrechts, who also stunned Michael Smith in the quarter-finals.

The next Pro Tour weekend will take place on March 28-29 with the newly added Players Championship events to fill the void left by the European Darts Open in Germany, which has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Click here for an updated PDC calendar.