Robert Thornton won his second title on the 2013 PDC ProTour with a nail-biting 6-5 victory over Jamie Caven in the final of the Gleneagle Hotel Players Championship at the INEC in Killarney.
The world number 11 bounced back from a first round exit to Paul Nicholson in last week’s partypoker.com World Grand Prix in Dublin by taking the £10,000 winners prize.
Thornton dropped just five legs in his first three matches where he beat Kevin McCann, Nick Fullwell and Vincent van der Voort to seal a place in the last 16.
The Scotsman then defeated Alan Tabern and Mark Walsh to reach the last four, where he overcame the in-form Dave Chisnall with a tight 6-5 win.
Thornton faced Jamie Caven in the decider and both players hit the ground running by sharing the opening two legs with 12-dart finishes.
The next two legs were shared before Thornton broke throw in the fifth leg only for Caven to hit back straight away to level at three apiece.
Caven led 4-3 and 5-4 only to be pegged back on both occasions before both players landed 180s in the deciding leg, which was won by Thornton with an excellent 15-darter.
Caven started his run to a fourth ProTour final of 2013 by breezing through to the last 16 stage as he dropped just four legs in the process of defeating Paul Madden, Alex Roy and Jim Walker.
The 37-year-old, who won the double header of Players Championships held in Wigan back in May, overcame former World Champions Richie Burnett and Steve Beaton to reach the semi-finals, where he defeated Darren Webster 6-3 after coming from 3-2 down.
The Derby ace put together a fine display in the decider against Thornton but was edged out by the Scotsman in a deciding leg and had to settle for the £5,000 runners-up prize.
World number seven Chisnall,followed up his fine performance at the World Grand Prix last week with a run to the semi-finals in Killarney on Saturday.
The St Helens ace recorded wins over Andy Smith and Brendan Dolan to reach the last four, where he hit six 180s and averaged over 103 but fell to an agonising 6-5 loss to Thornton and had to settle for £2,500 in prize money.
Webster, Friday’s winner in the Ladbrokes Irish masters in Killarney, continued his resurgence on the PDC circuit by reaching the semi-finals for the first time in 2013 – repeating his performance of 12 months ago in Killarney.
The Norwich thrower recorded fine victories over top 16 stars Peter Wright and Justin Pipe before breezing through his quarter-final clash against John Henderson with a whitewash 6-0 win.
Webster’s hopes of reaching his first ever ProTour final were on course when he established a 3-2 lead over Caven, which featured an 11-darter. However, the Derby ace won the next four legs to end the 45-year-old’s challenge.
Hertfordshire’s Mark Walsh, who has dropped to world number 27, reached the last eight of a ProTour event for the first time since the Dutch Darts Masters last October with his progression.
Walsh’s run to the quarter-finals included three consecutive wins over major finalists Barrie Bates, Andy Hamilton and Wes Newton before losing to former UK Open champion Thornton.
Scotland’s John Henderson produced his best performance in a PDC ProTour event since reaching the last eight at the same venue 12 months ago.
The 40-year-old, a quarter-finalist at the World Grand Prix two years ago, notched up impressive wins over Mark Webster, Ian White and Justin Pipe before falling to a whitewash defeat at the hands of Webster in the last eight.
Wes Newton fired in a fantastic nine-dart finish in his last 32 victory over Germany’s Jyhan Artut, which was the fourth hit so far this week following the three recorded in Championship League Darts by Michael van Gerwen, Mervyn King and Kim Huybrechts.