Darts results: James Wade wins a third PDC title in eight days after triumphing at Players Championship 12

By Chris Hammer

Darts

Sun April 14, 2019 · 6y ago

James Wade's incredible run of form continued as he triumphed over Jeffrey de Zwaan to complete a weekend double of Players Championship titles - and his third success in just eight days.

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The Machine beat Michael Smith 8-2 in last Saturday's Players Championship 9 final in Barnsley to win his first tournament of the season before defeating the same opponent a week later at the same venue - this time 8-6 - to claim his second.

Bully Boy was a victim of Wade's once again in Sunday's semi-finals, losing 7-4, before the Aldershot thrower came from 4-0 down to overcome the impressive de Zwaan 8-5 with an average of 98 and claim his 32nd career title.

Wade is now the joint most prolific tournament winner on the PDC circuit alongside Michael van Gerwen in the period since he ended his near five-year drought for a big TV title at last October's European Championship.

The nine-time major winner has won five of the last 21 PDC tournaments in the past six months, including the World Series of Darts Finals, although world champion van Gerwen didn't feature in any of the last four Players Championship events.

Wade told www.pdc.tv: "When you get to my age and you haven't played so well for five years, it's really special to win back-to-back titles. I thought I was dead and buried in the final. I was feeling a little bit tired and I didn't play anywhere near as well as I did in two or three other games today.

"But I'm really happy to win. I've been playing this game at the top level for 15 years now but the best may be to come. The sky's the limit and hopefully I can win a few more."

Wade extended his unbeaten run to 15 matches over the weekend having also drawn with Daryl Gurney in the Thursday night's Premier League clash and although this success was predominantly based on a high standard of darts, there were a couple of scares along the way.

After edging past Luke Woodhouse 6-5 in the opening round with an average of 99, he posted a mark of 108 in a 6-0 demolition job of Christian Kist before scraping past Ted Evetts in a deciding leg.

Wade overcame Stephen Bunting 6-4 with a 104.7 average and then defeated Jonny Clayton for the second day running - this time 6-2 - in the quarter-finals to set up another clash with Smith.

An average of just 92 was enough to seal his 15th triumph in his last 16 meetings with the St Helens man but he needed to show his trademark fighting spirit against de Zwaan in the final.

The rising Dutch star broke throw twice in racing into a 4-0 lead but spurned two darts to take the next as Wade punched him with a 68 checkout to get on the board before a finish from 106 two legs later sealed a second break on his way to levelling it up at 4-4.

De Zwaan, featuring in his first final since his maiden ProTour title in Wigan almost 12 months ago and fourth overall, regained the lead but that was the last leg he'd win, with Wade taking the next three, with the help of a 108 checkout to seal more glory.

The Dutchman, who reached the 2018 World Matchplay semi-finals and made his Premier League debut as a Contender in Rotterdam this season, posted averages of 103.5, 102.5 and 106.8 in his wins over Steve Beaton, Glen Durrant and John Henderson respectively.

Elsewhere Raymond van Barneveld's hopes of qualifying for the big TV tournaments suffered another setback as he slumped to a first-round exit to complete a miserable weekend.

Premier League stars Peter Wright and Daryl Gurney both exited before the last 32 stage, while Gerwyn Price went out at the last 16 to Danny Noppert despite averaging 105.2.