Peter Wright ICECREAM Man
Peter Wright dubbed himself the “ice cream man” after whipping Michael van Gerwen on the way to winning the opening Autumn Series Players Championship 14.
The World Champion was at his devastating best to beat Latvian Madars Razma 8-1 in the final in Niedernhausen, Germany earlier today.
Wright was especially impressive in dumping MVG in the semi-finals, coming from 5-2 down to win 7-6 in a corker with a 109 average.
He said: “I felt confident coming here. But I didn’t know which darts to use. I started off with diamond darts in the first round but didn’t feel comfortable with them.
“I played with them for two rounds then switched to the ones I used in the Premier League.
“It was hard work. I was like the ice cream man, I kept hitting 99 averages. I wanted some sprinkles on top to put it over 100!
“You’ve got to play well to beat Michael. I think we had a pretty good game. It was nice to see Michael throw everything at me. He was playing some superb darts. He let me in, he had two or three bad scores which I jumped on and I managed to get over the line.
“Obviously the Premier League has helped me playing day after day against the best players in the world. I told Jeff Smith yesterday, I’m here to win all five tournaments, it’s up to you guys to try and stop me.”
Prior to his fine win over MVG, Wright had also beaten his lockdown live-in buddy Dimitri van den Bergh 6-2 - who was carrying a knee injury sustained playing football - and smashed Premier League table-topper Glen Durrant 6-0 in the quarters.
Razma also had a cracking run, beating Steve Lennon, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Karel Sedlacek and Jelle Klaasen.
Van Gerwen looked like his old self again playing with old darts with a smooth run to the semis. He beat Krzysztof Kciuk, Luke Humphries, Stephen Bunting, William Borland and Krzysztof Ratajski.
Other notable performances of the day included another classy run from Devon Petersen who beat Gerwyn Price 6-2 in the last 32 with a whopping 107.6 average.
Lisa Ashton pulled off a huge result in the opening round beating Michael Smith 6-4.
Ashton averaged only 90 compared to 101 from Smith but The Lancashire Rose took her chances when it mattered including high checkouts of 130 and 100.
By Phil Lanning
Picture by Taylor Lanning.