Michael van Gerwen and Robert Thornton warmed up for the PartyPoker.com World Grand Prix in style by sharing the spoils in the weekend’s two Players Championship events held at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin.
Van Gerwen claimed his fourth PDC ProTour title of the year as he edged out Thornton to win the £6,000 first prize in Saturday’s event, before the Scot made amends by going all the way 24 hours later.
Van Gerwen’s triumph came only three weeks after he had taken glory in another Players Championship in Barnsley as he continued his superb year.
The Dutch ace, who meets Colin Lloyd tomorrow night in the World Grand Prix, came from 4-1 and 5-3 down to win Saturday’s final against Thornton, winning the final three legs without reply thanks to checkouts of 70, 124 and 110.
Van Gerwen also defeated Andrew Gilding, Dennis Smith, Paul Nicholson, Joe Cullen and Arron Monk in an impressive day of darts.
Thornton’s run to the final included wins over Kevin McDine, fellow Scot Mike Veitch, Mervyn King, Ian White, Denis Ovens and Scott Rand – as he came from 5-2 down to win through to the decider.
Rand’s semi-final appearance was his first on the PDC ProTour since February, while former PDC Unicorn World Youth champion Monk impressed as he reached the last four on the senior circuit for the first time.
Thornton bounced back superbly to win Sunday’s Players Championship as he came out on the right side of a 6-5 scoreline in a see-saw final against fellow Scot Gary Anderson.
Thornton won five successive matches with 6-3 scorelines as he saw off Darren Johnson, Vincent van der Voort, Scott Rand, Mervyn King and Wes Newton to reach the final – hitting six 180s in his semi-final win over the latter.
Thornton then opened the final with legs of 14 and 11 darts to lead 2-0, only for Anderson to move 3-2 up.
The scoreline changed hands a further two times as Anderson came from 4-3 down to lead 5-4 – but he would never have a dart for the match as Thornton took out 84 to force a decider and 89 to take his first Players Championship win since 2009.
“It’s brilliant to win this – I’m over the moon,” said Thornton, who will play Mark Walsh on Monday night in the opening game of the double-start World Grand Prix.
“I’ve had a couple of quarter-finals and semi-finals recently and got to the final yesterday, so I thought I was due a win and hopefully there’s many more to come.
“Michael van Gerwen is probably the player mostly on form at the minute and he’s starting to enjoy his game and he’s outstanding when he starts scoring. I thought I threw it away against him yesterday but he hit his finishes and hats off to him.
“I’m chuffed to bits and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I’ll rest up tonight, have a couple of hours’ practice tomorrow and then just enjoy the game tomorrow night.”
Anderson’s run to the final was a boost for the former Premier League Darts champion, who has not reached that stage in a Players Championship for almost 12 months.
He dropped only three legs in his wins over Adam Smith-Neale, Nigel Heydon and Terry Temple before overcoming PDC Unicorn World Youth Champion James Hubbard 6-3 in the last 16.
Anderson then came from 3-0 down to win his quarter-final with Raymond van Barneveld 6-3 and saw off Dave Chisnall 6-3 in the semis to reach his first ProTour final for almost 12 months.
Chisnall’s run to the last four included wins over former World Champions Dennis Priestley and Mark Webster and a 6-4 quarter-final defeat of Kim Huybrechts, who missed double 12 for a nine-darter in the contest.