Chris Dobey picked up his third Pro Tour title of the year on Wednesday, after defeating Stephen Bunting 8-3 in the final of Players Championship 25, as the Merseysider lost a second final is a many days.
Dobey, the winner of PC7 and PC19, went all the way once again, as he reached the final firstly by recording victories against Nathan Rafferty, William O’Connor, Gabriel Clemens, Jeffrey de Graaf, Luke Littler and Daryl Gurney, to set up a clash with Bunting.
A return to strong performances continues for Daryl Gurney who reached the semifinal to back up recent good results on the Pro Tour. Andrew Gilding also produced a run to the last four despite dramatically up and down averages (88-104), as the midweek triple header continued at Wigan’s Robin Park Tennis Centre.
Elsewhere, there were Quarter Finals runs for top seed Dave Chisnall and two-time ranking title winner Ryan Joyce reaffirmed a return to form.
Bunting’s run to a another floor final saw the reigning Masters champion record victories against Danny Van Trijp, Jamie Hughes, Jermaine Wattimena, Mike De Decker, Connor Scutt and Andrew Gilding, before being denied by Dobey.
The final began with Dobey racing into a 2-0 lead, with winning legs coming in 18 and 14 darts respectively, before there was a run of three consecutive breaks of throw, ending with Bunting holding throw in Leg Six with a 16 darter to square the tie up at 3apiece.
Dobey eventually dominated the remainder of the tie, with the North East star winning five successive legs and sealing the victory in Leg 11 with a 15 darter to pick up a third title of the year and a sixth of his PDC career.
Darren Beveridge and Lukas Wenig reached the last 16 whilst the likes of Luke Humphries, Nathan Aspinall and Tuesday’s PC24 winner Wessel Nijman were amongst the high profile first round casualties.
The PDC Pro Tour triple header concludes on Thursday with Players Championship 26 taking place in Wigan, with the 128 players returning to compete for a further £125,000 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 25
Last 16
Dave Chisnall 6-4 Raymond Van Barneveld
Andrew Gilding 6-3 Gary Anderson
Connor Scutt 6-1 Lukas Wenig
Stephen Bunting 6-4 Mike De Decker
Luke Littler 6-4 Darren Beveridge
Chris Dobey 6-5 Jeffrey De Graaf
Daryl Gurney 6-5 Dirk Van Duijvenbode
Ryan Joyce 6-2 Damon Heta
Quarter Finals
Andrew Gilding 6-5 Dave Chisnall
Stephen Bunting 6-4 Connor Scutt
Chris Dobey 6-5 Luke Littler
Daryl Gurney 6-4 Ryan Joyce
Semi Finals
Stephen Bunting 7-4 Andrew Gilding
Chris Dobey 7-1 Daryl Gurney
Final
Chris Dobey 8-3 Stephen Bunting
—–ENDS—–
Images: PDC
