Peter Wright beats Gerwyn Price to win Players Championship event
Coverage of the Premier League continues on Thursday on Sky Sports Action from 7pm
Saturday 22 February 2020 19:14, UK
World champion Peter Wright is in the form of his life and he underlined it by beating Gerwyn Price to win Players Championship Five in Wigan on Saturday.
The pair face off in Premier League action on Thursday in Dublin, but they served up a Pro Tour classic on a day of huge averages and a 10th nine-darter of the season - Steve Lennon was this Saturday's perfection hitter.
On a day that set a record for the Pro Tour average and tournament-winning average, Snakebite missed a dart at double 20 to break his own broadcast-record average, but he still managed an astonishing 120.2 average in a second-round whitewash victory over Adrian Gray.
The final was no different on a day littered with 100+ scores, Wright and Price, who also met in the World Championship semi-final in December, duked it out in a spellbinding final.
Both men averaged almost 110 before Snakebite, fittingly, took out a brilliant 170 finish to win the final 8-6 with the only break of throw in the contest
Having come so close for so many years, Wright is making a habit of winning in 2020, first adding the Masters to a maiden World Championship and now claiming a first Pro Tour title of a remarkably consistent season - the fifth different winner from the opening five events.
Wright averaged more than 100 in six of his seven matches and had dropped just seven legs in his run to the last four where he edged out Devon Petersen, who enjoyed a return to form with a run to the last four.
"It's just the start. I'm enjoying these darts and we've got something in the pipeline to improve them further," said Snakebite, who was beaten in both quarter-finals on the first Pro Tour weekend, and then both semi-finals of the second.
"Who knows what I can win this year? I just take it a leg at a time and that's all you can do.
"As world champion, I've always got a target on my back but I feel like I'm giving some of the other players the belief that they too can win anything."
Live Premier League Darts
Price, unbeaten in the Premier League this season and beaten by Nathan Aspinall in Players Championship Two, had thrilled in his run to the final but in the end came up just short as Snakebite took the honours.
World number one Michael van Gerwen will have to wait for his first title of the year, despite averaging more than 101 for all three of his games, he threw away a 5-3 advantage against Christian Bunse to lose 6-5 in the third round.
Having lost his Premier League unbeaten record on Thursday, MvG has now registered his longest wait for a ranking title to start the season since 2011, when he had to wait until April.
Willie O'Connor warmed up for his appearance as a Premier League 'Challenger' in Dublin on Thursday with an impressive run to the quarter-finals where he was halted by Price. Last year's Dublin 'Contender' Steve Lennon also enjoyed his best showing of the year to reach the semi-final.
O'Connor and Lennon teamed up to reach the World Cup final for Ireland last year and the pair were in superb form in Wigan, Lennon recorded three averages in excess of 100 before eventually falling to the Iceman, having missed match darts for a place in the final.
Earlier in the day Lennon, who missed match darts hit a nine-dart finish in the fourth leg of his last 32 clash with Kai Fan Leung, marking the tenth perfect leg across the PDC this year.
With plenty of stories to track across the Pro Tour, Lisa Ashton's search for a run of wins continues, she suffered a 6-3 first-round defeat to Harald Leitinger.
Quarter-Finals
Devon Petersen 6-5 Rob Cross
Peter Wright 6-1 Glen Durrant
Steve Lennon 6-2 Gabriel Clemens
Gerwyn Price 6-2 William O'Connor
Semi-Finals
Peter Wright 7-5 Devon Petersen
Gerwyn Price 7-6 Steve Lennon
Final
Peter Wright 8-6 Gerwyn Price
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Coverage of the Premier League continues on Thursday, February 27 in Dublin at 7pm on Sky Sports Action & Sky Sports Main Event with William O'Connor up against Michael van Gerwen. Don't forget, the coverage continues every Thursday through until the Play-Offs in London on May 21.
