Gerwyn Price and Michael van Gerwen won Players Championship events 7 and 8 in Germany, with Price beating Latvian Madars Razma in the final 8-4 and van Gerwen winning by the same score line in beating German Martin Schindler.
Price will have been disappointed with his display in Rotterdam on Thursday but returned to form on the Saturday defeating the likes of Rob Cross and Dirk van Duijvenbode to win his first Pro Tour title of 2022. His match against Rob Cross in the semi-finals, saw the Englishman miss thirteen match darts and “The Iceman” hit five legs on the spin in dealing with a 6-2 deficit.
Price played some impressive stuff on his way to his 25th Pro Tour title defeating Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-3 with a 102.97 average in the quarter finals as well as averaging 104.28 in his second match of the day beating Ted Evetts 6-5.
The injury that ruled the Welshman out of the Premier League started to play up, but Price powered through with his game getting better after each match.
Michael van Gerwen lost in the final in Rotterdam on Thursday but bounced back emphatically in Germany. The win against Schindler sees him return to number three in the world after Michael Smith’s no show in Germany, as the Dutchman picked up the £12,000 in the ranking money after winning event 8.
His best performance came in the final with van Gerwen hitting a 102.48 average which turned out to be his highest average of the day.
Van Gerwen hit an average of 101 on three separate occasions on Sunday with wins over Brendan Dolan, Geert de Vos and Jim Mosten, with the Dutchman also beating Players Championship 1 winner Luke Humphries in the semi finals and UK Open champion Danny Noppert in the last 16.
So far this year, the three-time former world champion has won the German Darts Championship and two nights in the Premier League as he won in Exeter and Brighton, as he sits at the top of the league after seven nights played.
Luke Humphries enjoyed an impressive weekend in Germany reaching the last 16 on the Saturday and the semi finals on the Sunday losing out to eventual winner Michael van Gerwen in the semi. There were impressive wins for “Cool Hand” with his highest average of 97.87 coming in a 6-3 win over Jermaine Wattimena in the last 16 of event 8.
Humphries beat some big names in reaching the semi-finals beating James Wade 6-5 in the quarters where the “The Machine” missed a dart at bull to knock the man from Newbury out.
The Englishman got one match dart at double tops which he executed to seal a hard-fought win. There was also a win over Vincent van der Voort on the Saturday for “Cool Hand”.
Brendan Dolan had a good run on the Sunday in Niederhausen as he reached the quarter finals of event 8. His standout performance was clearly in the last 16 as he defeated Danny Jensen 6-4 with an average of 100.71, as he also beat the likes of Mervyn King and Keegan Brown showing that “The History Maker” is always a threat in the Pro Tour Events.
There were two nine darters across the weekends action as well with Raymond van Barneveld rolling back the years in hitting one against Adam Hunt and Jose de Sousa striking perfection against Keane Barry on the same day.
The darting action continues as the Premier League returns to Birmingham with Event 7 winner Gerwyn Price taking on night 7 winner Joe Cullen and Michael van Gerwen taking on James Wade in quarter final action.
Results:
Players Championship 7: Last 16
Gerwyn Price 6-1 Geert Nentjes
Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-5 Krzysztof Ratajski
Scott Williams 6-2 Ron Meulenkamp
Rob Cross 6-1 Callan Rydz
Gary Blades 6-4 Damian Mol
Madars Razma 6-1 Luke Humphries
Jose de Sousa 6-4 Raymond van Barneveld
Kevin Doets 6-5 Damon Heta
Quarter Finals:
Gerwyn Price 6-3 Dirk van Duijvenbode
Rob Cross 6-3 Scott Williams
Madars Razma 6-3 Gary Blades
Kevin Doets 6-4 Jose de Sousa
Semi Finals:
Gerwyn Price 7-6 Rob Cross
Madars Razma 7-3 Kevin Doets
Final:
Gerwyn Price 8-4 Madars Razma
Players Championship 8: Last 16
Martin Schindler 6-2 Jamie Hughes
Daryl Gurney 6-5 Krzysztof Ratajski
Stephen Bunting 6-3 Rob Cross
Adrian Lewis 6-5 Damon Heta
Michael van Gerwen 6-3 Danny Noppert
Brendan Dolan 6-4 Danny Janson
James Wade 6-3 Keane Barry
Luke Humphries 6-3 Jermaine Wattimena
Quarter Finals:
Martin Schindler 6-2 Daryl Gurney
Adrian Lewis 6-4 Stephen Bunting
Michael van Gerwen 6-4 Brendan Dolan
Luke Humphries 6-5 James Wade
Semi Finals:
Martin Schindler 7-2 Adrian Lewis
Michael van Gerwen 7-5 Luke Humphries
Final:
Michael van Gerwen 8-4 Martin Schindler
——ENDS—–
Words: Harry Masterson
Image: PDC