A 3rd Grand Slam for The Iceman
Gerwyn "The Iceman" Price slammed home an emphatic Third Eric Bristow trophy, against World Number 2 Peter "Snakebite" Wright confirming his World Number 1 seed for the Players Championships Finals.
Price’s road to the final was very challenging, in the quarter-final, Gerwyn faced his World Cup partner and in-form player Jonny Clayton in a thrilling game where Jonny managed to bring it back to 6-6 from a 5-1 deficit.
Gerwyn hit 11 maximums and managed to see the game to the end beating ‘The Ferret’ 16-12.
Victory over Jonny earned Gezzy a game against World number 4, James Wade, but The Iceman was in superb form hitting a world class ton plus average keeping ‘The Machine’ at bay hitting 64% of his checkouts and marching into the final with a rock solid 16-9 win.
Aldersley Leisure Park saw an all Red Dragon final with the Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright beating Michael Smith earlier in the day in what as an outstanding game, with Snakebite coming from behind to end Michael’s hopes of the title.
Peter's run to the final had several nail-biting moments, when he met 2020 Grand Slam Champion Jose de Sousa in the last 16, Snakebite managed to beat ‘The Special One’ by breaking the throw in the last leg and checking out double 16 for a wafer thin 10-9 victory.
The man who changes his darts more than his socks met record breaker and fan favourite Fallon Sherrock in the quarters, and Peter had to be at his very best to end the fairy tale for Sherrock’ s with a 16-13 win, which saw Peter hit sixty three Ton+ shots.
With the Semi-finals and Finals played on the last day, all four players faced a marathon to claim the Grand Slam Title, and Peter was up against the hugely talented speedster Michael Smith in what turned out to be another sensational semi-final.
Snakebite kept up with ‘Bully Boy’ until mid-game where Smith took a 4 leg lead to 12-8. The Match-play Champion pulled off a staggering come back winning 8 straight legs to beat Smith 16-12 and progress to the final with Price.
Right from the outset Iceman capitalised on a tired looking Snakebite who was slow to start, Gerwyn's darting master-piece saw him reel off the first 3 legs with a 103 average.
With Snakebite struggling for top form it was just a step too far against ‘The Iceman’s’ brilliant scoring power.
Gerwyn kept the pressure up on Peter for the whole game, even after a scintillating 155 checkout from Snakebite threatened to upset the victory march eventually winning the match 16-8 and claiming the most coveted Eric Bristow Trophy for the Third time in a row at Aldersley Leisure Park in front of his closest family.
Gerwyn added "It was such a long and hard day but my form was really good, Peter let me get a decent lead but he fought back like we knew he would and I was just so happy to lift this amazing trophy again for the third time".