This was Denis Ovens’ day as the veteran swept to victory in the second Players Championship event on the rock of Gibraltar.
He beat Gary Anderson in the final in a deciding leg to claim his first title in nearly three years
Andy Hamilton was Unicorn’s top performer, losing in the semi-finals to Ovens after ‘The Hammer’ had secured back-to-back victories over stablemates and Wes Newton and Colin Osborne. Hamilton dropped only two legs in his opening four match but ran up against an in-form ‘Heat’ in those semi-finals.
Three Team Unicorn stars were beaten in the quarter-finals – hugely disappointing for James Wade, Terry Jenkins and Wes Newton.
Wade lost 6-3 to PDC new boy Nigel Heydon, Newton had chances but was edged out in a last leg decider to Hamilton, while Anderson nailed eight 180s in beating ‘The Bull’ 6-3.
In the last 16, Jenkins beat Adrian Lewis, despite the Stoke man coming from 5-2 down to force a decider….and Hamilton got revenge over best friend Colin Osborne for his defeat at the same stage to ‘The Wizard’ on Saturday. He won it 6-0!
Paul Nicholson’s run was ended by Heydon in the 3rd Round, as he went down to a 6-3 defeat.
Five Team Unicorn players were beaten in round two….Barrie Bates lost 6-3 to Robert Thornton, Joe Cullen was whitewashed by Mark Walsh, Kevin Painter went down 6-2 against German Marko Puls, Jamie Caven lost 6-4 to Par Riihonen and Peter Manley was a last leg loser to Dennis Smith.
Meanwhile, John Part’s dreadful weekend on ‘The Rock’ was completed by a 1st Round exit, as he lost 6-5 to another one of the surprise packages on the day – Welshman Steve Evans. Part did win his preliminary round match 6-0 against Wayne Mardle but the Canadian will be bitterly disappointed with his weekend in Gibraltar.
Also in the 1st Round, Gary Mawson slumped to a surprise 6-1 defeat to German Sebastijan Pecjak, Kirk Shepherd lost by the same score to Keith Rooney, Mick McGowan was another 6-1 loser against Ronnie Baxter and Anastasia was also beaten 6-1 by Jyhan Artut, while Michael Rosenauer went down 6-3 to Tony Eccles.
Results – last 16:
Steve Evans 6-5 Richie Burnett
Denis Ovens 6-1 Mark Dudbridge
Wes Newton 6-2 Wayne Jones
Andy Hamilton 6-0 Colin Osborne
Terry Jenkins 6-5 Adrian Lewis
Gary Anderson 6-0 Robert Thornton
James Wade 6-3 Co Stompe
Nigel Heydon 6-3 Kevin McDine
Losers - £500
Quarter-Finals:
Nigel Heydon 6-3 James Wade
Denis Ovens 6-2 Steve Evans
Andy Hamilton 6-5 Wes Newton
Gary Anderson 6-3 Terry Jenkins
Losers - £1,000
Semi-Finals:
Denis Ovens 6-1 Andy Hamilton
Gary Anderson 6-2 Nigel Heydon
Losers - £1,500
Final:
Denis Ovens 6-5 Gary Anderson
Winner - £6,000
Runner – up - £3,000
• Matt Clark hit a 9-darter in his match against Dave Askew and earned himself a £3,600 bonus for his personal magic moment.
By STUART PYKE (Twitter @stuartpykesport)
Photo courtesy Chris Sargeant