Players Championship Finals: Mickey Mansell in shock win over Gary Anderson

09:06 · SAT November 25, 2017

A review of Friday's action at the Players Championship Finals in Minehead, where Peter Wright, Gary Anderson and Raymond van Barneveld were dumped out.

All White on the night

Mickey Mansell produced one of the big upsets on the opening day of the Players Championship Finals as he beat Gary Anderson 6-3 in Minehead.

The left-hander won the first leg after Anderson, who looked out of sorts throughout, missed five darts for it.

From there, Mansell was never behind, a 136 checkout putting him 5-2 up and within one of victory before Anderson showed a glimmer of promise to reduce the deficit.

However, Mansell closed the door firmly in the Scot's face, throwing 140, 180, 165 in the ninth leg and while his first three darts for the match missed their target, attempt four found the double two bed to seal a famous win.

I don’t know for certain, but Gary looks injured. Elbow or shoulder possibly. Looks subdued. I hope he’s ok for the worlds.
— Wayne Mardle (@Wayne501Mardle) November 24, 2017

There was some speculation that Anderson may have been struggling with a back injury, although as Mansell revealed there was a further explanation for a below-par performance from the former world champion.

"(Anderson's) youngest child has been in hospital the last two days," Mansell confirmed. "His mind hasn't been on darts. Gary Anderson's perspective on darts the last two, three days has been out the window.

"There's no getting away from the fact it showed. Gary Anderson on his day... I love to watch him. He's exceptional.

"I'm chuffed to bits to beat Gary, but viewers at home probably don't understand all the circumstances."

Ian White took his record against Raymond van Barneveld to a perfect 4-0 with a tense 6-5 victory.

Behind early, White staged a rally which saw him lead 5-4 and while van Barneveld levelled before firing a maximum to open the deciding leg, White kept with him and hit double 10 to advance.

Van Barneveld led 3-1 thanks to a 127 checkout in the fourth leg, but lost the next three as White found his scoring range to move ahead.

Having been pegged back to 5-5, the Englishman could've been forgiven for thinking his chance had gone when, with the darts, he opened the deciding leg with just 41 - which was followed by van Barneveld's second 180 of the match.

However, White responded with his fifth and when van Barneveld missed two darts for the match, was on hand to take his third opportunity.

The final match of the night on the main stage produced another surprise win as Steve Hine edged to a narrow 6-5 victory over Peter Wright.

Wright was the runner-up in the Grand Slam of Darts last week but his campaign in Minehead ended at the first hurdle.

"Just to qualify for this event is hard but this is massive for me," said Hine. "Peter's the world number two and I look up to him, and hopefully this can kick on my career further."

Michael van Gerwen (l) saw off Paul Nicholson (Pic: Lawrence Lustig/PDC)

Top seed Rob Cross signed off a 6-2 victory over Robert Owen by taking out 129 courtesy of a pair of double 18s.

Cross, one of the rising starts in the game and among the fancied players this week, didn't score as heavily as he can and had looked set to see his advantage reduced to two legs, before turning on the style to progress.

Michael van Gerwen started his campaign with a simple victory as he beat Paul Nicholson 6-2.

Michael Smith is out after a 6-3 defeat against Jan Dekker.

Daryl Gurney thumped Jeffrey de Zwaan 6-0 and there was a victory by the same scoreline for Mensur Suljovic over Andy Boulton.

Lewis lights up afternoon

Adrian Lewis was among the more impressive first-round winners earlier in the day.

Lewis averaged 98.89 as he held off a brief fightback from Mike De Decker, who reduced a 5-1 deficit to 5-3 before Lewis sealed victory in style with a 129 checkout.

The two-time world champion was using a new dart in the same design as van Barneveld and admitted: "I've not won a game on TV since July and I needed to change something, and I'm probably practising as well as I've ever done.

"I'm enjoying practising and I know I can improve with these darts. As the tournament progresses I think with the longer formats you'll see the real me turn up."

Stephen Bunting also impressed, the former BDO world champion hitting four maximums as he beat Benito van de Pas 6-3, whereas Dave Chisnall scraped past Joe Murnan 6-5, hitting double 20 with his final dart as his opponent waited on 71.

Jamie Caven held his nerve to beat Joe Cullen 6-5, the latter missing double 16 for the match which was close throughout and whose highlight was a 156 checkout from Caven early on.

Richard North averaged close to 100 thanks to relentless three-figure throws as he beat Peter Hudson 6-1, a performance which included hitting bullseye for a 130 checkout in the sixth leg, while the first whitewash of the tournament came from Jermaine Wattimena who beat Keegan Brown 6-0.

Darren Webster didn't have to be at his best to beat Antonio Alcinas 6-3, likewise Justin Pipe as he saw off Mark Webster by the same scoreline.

Cristo Reyes lost 6-5 to Peter Jacques despite hitting four maximums and averaging over 98. The Spaniard missed five match darts in the deciding leg, prior to which he'd been effective checking out in what was a quality encounter.

In the final match of the afternoon session, James Wade stuttered to a 6-4 victory over Kevin Painter, missing six match darts in the eighth leg before Painter reduced the deficit to one thanks to a 121 checkout.

Wade started leg 10 with a pair of composed 140s, however, and made no mistake back on double 20 for a 13-dart leg to finish on a high

Evening session

Main Stage