Peter Wright defeats Searle in ‘deciding leg’ to win Players Championship Finals | More Sports

Peter Wright is gradually returning to his best form. The Scot played the final of the Grand Slam of Darts last week, where he lost to Gerwyn Price. The latter had already been eliminated, so Wright smelled his chance. In the semi-final he made short work of that other Welshman, Jonny Clayton. Ryan Searle, who sidelined Brendan Dolan in the other semifinal, was the surprise second finalist in Minehead.

It was Wright who showed in the opening phase that he already had some experience with finals. He barely gave Searle chances in his own games, but the 34-year-old Searle also held up. Even in the second interruption it could go either way, no one accepted the missed doubles of his opponent. When Searle finally took the first break of the match to 6-5, it was time for Wright to deal a sledgehammer blow. Rebreak, followed by a new break with check-out at 141.

Wright then missed two match darts and allowed Searle to come back to a deciding leg. Tension trumps. Searle put excellent pressure on Wright, but the Scot remained calm and finished with the first dart: 11-10!

‘Snakebite’ Wright may add 120,000 of a total of 600,000 euros in prize money to his bank account, losing finalist Searle receives 60,000 euros and makes a nice jump in the Order of Merit. Our compatriots Kim Huybrechts and Dimitri Van den Bergh already died in the first and second rounds respectively.

Next appointment? The World Darts Championship, from December 15 on VTM 4 or on HLN.be!

Peter Wright made a statement in his semifinal against Jonny Clayton. Where he started slowly in previous matches, he immediately grabbed the Welshman by the throat. Clayton had barely one to his name after eight games. Wright scored excellent on the doubles (7 out of 9) and achieved an average of more than 105 at that time. Clayton did not convince at this PC Finals, and has to pay for that with a solid 11-6 defeat.

Ryan Searle is in his first ever TV final. ‘Heavy Metal’, that is his nickname, made short work of the advance of Brendan Dolan. The Northern Irishman knocked Gerwyn Price and José de Sousa on his way to the final, but after the second interruption he seemed to succumb to the pressure. Searle, on the other hand, only really came under steam then and took four games in a row, to count out Dolan. Final score: 6-11.

Peter Wright has been on the podium since yesterday with a dose of boos after he had a serious altercation with Adrian Lewis. He and Van Gerwen had to wait a little longer because of a fire alarm, but the level did not suffer. In the second interruption, Van Gerwen scored an average of almost 12 points more than the Scot, but they still went 5-5 to the wings.

After that break ‘Snakebite’ pushed the accelerator, resulting in dominant playing and especially two breaks. Suddenly, the six-time defending champion was 9-6 in the loss. He couldn’t get over that blow, and so the Dutchman was eliminated. Mighty Mike – who won all majors of the calendar year in 2017 – won none this year.

Brendan Dolan surprised the world yesterday by knocking number one of the PDC ranking Gerwyn Price out of the tournament. Today, the Northern Irishman had to do it all over again against the number one in the Player Championship ranking, José de Sousa. The Portuguese started the match very nonchalantly and let Dolan run to 1-4 in the first interruption. De Sousa barely found his typical 180’s and barely managed to check-outs in the first half. Dolan briefly ran out to a difference of six legs, and did not relinquish that: 4-10.

Daryl Gurney or Ryan Searle, either gentleman would certainly make an unexpected semifinalist at these PC Finals. It was Gurney who started the match best and was able to break twice. Searle clung to 6-6, and then managed what seemed to be the decisive break. At 7-9, Searle missed a pre-match dart, opening the door for Gurney to come back. The level was very high – both averages of 101 – no one deserved the defeat, but in the decider it was Searle who came out on top with a handsome 104!

Jonny Clayton has wasted little energy on Vincent van der Voort. The Dutchman scored disastrously bad on doubles (3 out of 19), Clayton didn’t even have to use his best darts. He won dry 10-3 and is thus again in the semi-finals without making much of an impression.