Price Defuses The Nuke

Gerwyn Price stormed to his second World Series of Darts title of 2024 with a stunning 8-1 victory against Luke Littler in Saturday’s Australian Darts Masters final.

Price – also a winner in June’s Nordic Darts Masters – delivered a stellar display in Wollongong to pocket the £20,000 top prize and deny Littler an eighth title in as many months.

The Welshman produced a blistering barrage to seize control of Saturday’s showpiece, storming 4-0 ahead with a 112 average.

Littler had no answer to Price’s sustained brilliance, and although the Warrington wonderkid opened his account in leg six, Price won the next three legs to cap off a darting demolition Down Under.

“Luke is playing fantastic darts at the moment, and that probably kicked me into gear,” conceded the 2021 World Champion, who averaged 99.42 and converted 53% of his attempts at double.

“I know I need to play well against every player, but especially against this young talent, so I was right up for this game.

“I haven’t been playing well over the last couple of months, but I really wanted to win this one.

“We can all hit nine, ten, 11, 12-darters, but the game is all about confidence, and this will give me the big confidence boost that I needed.”

Price brushed aside Brenton Lloyd in Friday’s first round, before overcoming Australian number one Damon Heta and a resurgent Peter Wright to advance to his third World Series final in as many months.

The 39-year-old recovered from 4-3 adrift to sink birthday boy Heta, and he overturned a 3-0 deficit against Wright, conjuring up a clinical 106 checkout to triumph in a last-leg shoot-out.

Price built on that momentum in the opening exchanges against Littler, reeling off four consecutive legs in 15, 14, 11 and 14 darts to establish control of the contest.

Littler overcame his woes on the outer ring with a 12-darter in leg six, but this failed to spark a stirring fightback, as Price responded with another three-leg burst to take the title.

“Fair play to Gezzy. I couldn’t keep up with him there,” admitted the 17-year-old.

“He didn’t miss much [in the final] and he deserved the win.

“There’s no excuses. I was poor in that final, but hopefully I can carry my form from my first two games into New Zealand.”

Littler was bidding to join Phil Taylor and Gary Anderson in claiming a hat-trick of World Series titles in the same calendar year, winning through high-quality ties against Michael Smith and Dimitri Van den Bergh.

The Premier League champion fired in successive 104 averages in the process, following up a 6-4 success against Smith with an epic 7-6 victory against Van den Bergh.

The pair registered 14 maximums between them in a contest littered with quality, but the Belgian paid the price for squandering two match darts in a dramatic decider, succumbing with a 103 average.

Earlier in the day, Van den Bergh also averaged 103 in his quarter-final win over Luke Humphries, defying a brace of ton-plus finishes from the World Champion to run out an emphatic 6-2 winner.

Wright, meanwhile, dumped out last year’s winner Rob Cross to advance to his first big stage semi-final in ten months, landing five 180s on his way to a 6-4 win.

Following Price’s triumph in Wollongong, the sport’s stars will cross the Tasman Sea to New Zealand for the second leg of the World Series’ Oceanic double-header next weekend.

The 2024 New Zealand Darts Masters will take place at Hamilton’s GLOBOX Arena on August 16-17, as a star-studded 16-player line-up compete for the coveted title across two days of action.