Sport Players Championship Finals
Clemens is in World Cup form in time, but van Gerwen dominates
As of: 9:43 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
Cult caller Bray leaves the big stage
After the World Championships in January, darts is probably losing its most famous voice, Russ Bray. As “The Voice” announced on Thursday, the World Cup final will be his last. The 66-year-old will remain with the PDC in a different role.
By reaching the semi-finals of the Players Championship Finals, Gabriel Clemens celebrated an excellent World Cup dress rehearsal. The fact that nothing came of his first major final was due to the confident Michael van Gerwen. The Germans’ opponents are emerging for the World Cup.
After his surprising run through to the semi-finals of the Players Championship Finals, Gabriel Clemens was shown his limits on the final evening in Minehead. The German number one lost to superstar Michael van Gerwen 6:11 in the second major semi-final of his career, who thus kept his clean slate against German players on the big stage.
The Dutchman showed no weaknesses in his throwing legs, was as snappy as usual despite his braces and gained a small advantage with a break in eleven darts in the first leg. Afterwards everything stayed in line for a long time until Clemens missed three darts on double 10 in the 13th leg and the Dutchman increased the lead to 8:5 on double 16. It was the preliminary decision of a duel in which Clemens waited in vain for his chance. When the Saarlander had a break, it was already 5:10.
Van Gerwen got his first match dart on the bullseye at 10:6, but missed. Clemens was given three more chances to make it 7:10, but was also unable to check, so van Gerwen completed the victory. The fact that Clemens was more than seven points worse than his opponent with an average of 94.36 was due to too many mistakes on the doubles fields. Ultimately, the crucial difference: While van Gerwen hit eleven of his 22 attempts, Clemens only managed six of 22 (27 percent).
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Nevertheless, in addition to prize money of 30,000 pounds, Clemens can look forward to the knowledge that he will be in top shape in time for the Darts World Cup, which begins on December 15th in London. The event at Alexandra Palace will not be drawn until November 27th, but based on the seeding list it is now clear which top players the two players from Germany seeded for the second round could face. As number 22, Clemens would face the Englishman Dave Chisnall after an opening win. Martin Schindler, the German number two, would face Danny Noppert from the Netherlands.
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In addition to the two top players, there are at least two other Germans, Ricardo Pietreczko and Dragutin Horvat. Even more could be added on Monday with Florian Hempel, Daniel Klose and Pascal Rupprecht. The trio will compete at the PDPA qualifier, where the last four World Cup tickets will be awarded.
Results Players Championship Finals
Round of 16
Kim Huybrechts (BEL) – Stephen Bunting (ENG) 8:10
Damon Heta (AUS) – Brendan Dolan (NIR) 10:8
Michael van Gerwen (NED) – Mario Vandenbogaerde (BEL) 10:6
Dave Chisnall (ENG) – Luke Woodhouse (ENG) 8:10
Luke Humphries (ENG) – Ryan Searle (ENG) 10:7
Gabriel Clemens (D) – Niels Zonneveld (NED) 10:1
Dimitri van den Bergh (BEL) – James Wade (ENG) 6:10
Jermaine Wattimena (NED) – Ryan Joyce (ENG) 7:10
Quarterfinals
Michael van Gerwen (NED) – Stephen Bunting (ENG) 10:9
Gabriel Clemens (D) – Luke Woodhouse (ENG) 10:7
James Wade (ENG) – Luke Humphries (ENG) 7:10
Damon Heta (AUS) – Ryan Joyce (ENG) 6:10
Semifinals
Michael van Gerwen (NED) – Gabriel Clemens (D) 11:6
Luke Humphries (ENG) – Ryan Joyce (ENG) 11:3
Finale
Michael van Gerwen (NED) – Luke Humphries (ENG)
