Keegan Seals PC23 Crown:
Keegan Brown won his first Players Championship Title of 2022 at the Barnsley Metro dome after beating Nathan Aspinall 8-7 in a last leg decider.
The Isle of Wight ace sealed the £12,000 to cap off what has been an excellent week so far having qualified for the Gibraltar Darts Trophy on Tuesday, after beating Andrew Gilding 6-2.
The Needle claims his second Pro Tour title in his darting career at PDC level, after securing victories on Thursday against the likes of Jose de Sousa 6-2 in Round 1 and Chris Dobey in the Quarter Finals winning 6-4 against Hollywood.
The 29-year-old saved his best arrows and rightly so for reigning World Champion Peter Wright, averaging 101.86 in a 7-4 victory over the World Number 2. Brown will return tomorrow for the final instalment of the three-day header in Barnsley, at Players Championship 24 on Friday.
Snakebite despite defeat in the Semi Finals can be happy with his days’ work, having lost 6-4 to David Pallett yesterday despite averaging 107.
The Livingston thrower included three ton plus averages on Thursday including his best performance against Michael Smith in the Quarter Finals, winning 6-3 with an average of 101.57 in a repeat of the recent World Championship Final.
Nathan Aspinall has enjoyed the best spell so far in the Pro Tour hat trick having won Players Championship 22 on Wednesday against Krzysztof Ratajski before reaching the Final a day later in Barnsley.
The Asp included a 103.43 average in a 6-1 demolition of Rusty-Jake Rodriguez at the Second-Round stage having failed to register a single ton plus score yesterday. The former UK Open champion beat Andrew Gilding 6-4 averaging 103.50 knowing he needed to be on top form, with Goldfinger a dangerous opponent in the Players Championship according to recent form.
Danny Noppert reached the Last 16 at Players Championship 23 continuing his good form from Wednesday by averaging above 100 in his first three matches, including a score of 106.10 in a 6-1 win over Jake Jones in the First Round.
The Freeze would see his run end at the hands of Ted Evetts who went on to reach the Semi Finals for the first time on the Pro Tour this year, also including a 6-4 victory over Martin Lukeman in the round prior, with Smash a dangerous opponent on the floor having qualified as part of the top 16 players on the Pro Tour order of merit.
The highest quality showing from Barnsley on Thursday must be the First-Round encounter between Gary Anderson and Stephen Bunting in a battle of former World Champions.
Both players averaged above a hundred with the Flying Scotsman winning 6-1 posting an average of 111.13 in moving onto the Second Round.
The final part of the Pro Tour hattrick returns tomorrow for Players Championship 24, with coverage live on PDC TV as well as live scores through Darts Connect TV.
Players Championship 23 Results:
Alan Soutar 6-4 Ricardo Pietreczko
Ted Evetts 6-5 Danny Noppert
Nathan Aspinall 6-4 Andrew Gilding
Shaun Wilkinson 6-4 Rob Cross
Michael Smith 6-1 Niels Zonneveld
Peter Wright 6-4 George Killington
Keegan Brown 6-2 Danny Baggish
Chris Dobey 6-3 Dirk van Duijvenbode
Quarter Finals:
Ted Evetts 6-2 Alan Soutar
Nathan Aspinall 6-1 Shaun Wilkinson
Peter Wright 6-3 Michael Smith
Keegan Brown 6-4 Chris Dobey
Semi Finals:
Nathan Aspinall 7-6 Ted Evetts
Keegan Brown 7-4 Peter Wright
Final:
Keegan Brown 8-7 Nathan Aspinall
—–ENDS—–
Image: PDC
