Luke Humphries picked up his third title of the year on Monday, with victory at Players Championship 20, after defeating Kevin Doets 8-6 in the final, as the PDC Pro Tour triple header continued at the Barnsley Metrodome.
World Number Six, Humphries, began the day with a victory against Andy Boulton and firing in a nine-dart leg during the process in a 6-3 success against the Scotsman.
The Englishman went on to record three successive 6-4 victories against Jim Williams, Scott Williams and Ryan Searle to reach the Last Eight. From there, Humphries dropped just three legs in his remaining two victories prior to the final, as he defeated World Champion Michael Smith and Sunday’s PC19 Winner Callan Rydz, to set up a clash with the Dutchman, Doets.
The final began with Humphries racing into a 3-0 lead, with winning legs coming in a total of 49 darts, before Doets fort back by winning three straight legs to square the tie up at 3 apiece. Humphries then won back-to-back in a total of 31 darts, before Doets followed suit to make it 5-5 and a best of five contest.
‘Cool Hand’ went on to dominate the remainder of the tie, showing his class and experience by winning three of the following four legs, sealing the victory in Leg 14 with a 13-dart break of throw to pick up a third Players Championship victory of his career.
Doets’ run to a first senior PDC final saw the Dutchman record victories against Nathan Rafferty, Lee Evans, Mervyn King, Ross Smith, Gabriel Clemens and Mike De Decker, before being denied by Humphries.
Elsewhere, there were Quarter Final runs for Rob Cross and Jermaine Wattimena, whilst the likes of Michael Van Gerwen, Peter Wright, Jonny Clayton and Dimitri Van den Bergh were amongst the high-profile names to suffer first round exits.
The PDC Pro Tour triple header concludes on Tuesday with Players Championship Twenty-One taking place in Barnsley, with the 128 players returning to compete for a further £100,000 in prize money, with play beginning at 13:00 BST.
Play will be broadcasted across four streaming boards on PDC.TV and various bookmaker websites worldwide, with all live scores and results on tv.dartconnect.com.
Players Championship 20
Last 16
Kevin Doets 6-5 Ross Smith
Gabriel Clemens 6-5 Cameron Menzies
Jermaine Wattimena 6-0 Jules Van Dongen
Mike De Decker 6-4 Danny Noppert
Callan Rydz 6-3 Florian Hempel
Rob Cross 6-5 Stephen Bunting
Luke Humphries 6-4 Ryan Searle
Michael Smith 6-3 Josh Rock
Quarter Finals
Kevin Doets 6-1 Gabriel Clemens
Mike De Decker 6-3 Jermaine Wattimena
Callan Rydz 6-5 Rob Cross
Luke Humphries 6-2 Michael Smith
Semi Finals
Kevin Doets 7-5 Mike De Decker
Luke Humphries 7-1 Callan Rydz
Final
Luke Humphries 8-6 Kevin Doets
—–Ends—–
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