It is fair to say that James Wade is back to his best!
The World No.3 took the honours at the first ever Spanish Darts Trophy, beating Raymond van Barneveld in an all Unicorn Final in Benidorm on Saturday.
It is Wade’s second title in seven days after his success in Germany last weekend….and it was a day to remember for Barney, who beat Phil Taylor for the first time in three-and-a-half years and the £3,000 prize money will go a long way to hopefully securing his spot at the Players Championship Finals in Doncaster in December.
In the semi-finals, Barney came from 0-2, 2-4 and 3-5 down to beat Taylor for the first time since the UK Open in Bolton in June 2008, but couldn’t repeat the dose against an inspired Wade in the final.
The Dutchman took the opening leg with a 104 finish, but then saw a well oiled ‘Machine’ reel off four consecutive legs, including check-outs of 128 and 125.
Although Barneveld got one leg back, Wade finished it with an 81 check-out to take another well deserved victory.
Taylor looked like the man to beat all day until he ran into Barneveld and fellow Team Unicorn star Kevin Painter again felt the force of ‘The Power’ as Taylor won their last 16 clash 6-1.
In a brilliant semi-final, Taylor actually missed three darts – all at ‘tops’ – to beat Barneveld 6-3, 6-4 and 6-5, but the Dutchman came back brilliantly to win the last three legs and ironically hit the D20 to win the deciding leg.
Wade saw off Mareno Michels, Gary Welding, Colin Osborne and Mensur Suljovic to reach the last eight, where he came from 4-5 down to edge out Mark Webster.
And in a thrilling semi-final, he came with 0-2 down to beat Dave Chisnall, thanks to finishes of 156 and 116 to go with an 11 darter!
This latest win will rocket Wade into the top seeds for that Players Championship Finals, while one more good Pro Tour event for Barney will see him guarantee his place.
Elsewhere, it was a mixed day for the rest of the Unicorn players…..five men were all beaten at the last 32 stage.
Gary Anderson missed chances and lost in a last leg decider to Adrian Lewis, Jamie Caven went down 6-4 to Dennis Priestley, while Andy Hamilton was a 6-2 loser to Ronnie Baxter….and there were two all Unicorn clashes….Barney beat Wes Newton 6-4 and Colin Osborne went down 6-2 to Wade.
Great friends Joe Cullen and Devon Petersen lost in round two….the Unicorn youngsters going down 6-2 to Caven and 6-3 to Barneveld respectively.
In the 1st Round, Michael Rosenauer lost 6-2 to Chris Thompson, Arron Monk was beaten 6-3 by Mensur Suljovic and Peter Manley was edged out 6-4 by Chris Aubrey.
Ladies star Steffi Luck was out of luck, as she was beaten 6-5 in the preliminary round by Martin Marti.
Results – Q/Finals:
Phil Taylor 6-5 Nigel Heydon
Raymond van Barneveld 6-1 Vincent van der Voort
James Wade 6-5 Mark Webster
Dave Chisnall 6-2 Simon Whitlock
Losers - £1,000
Semi-Finals:
Raymond van Barneveld 6-5 Phil Taylor
James Wade 6-4 Dave Chisnall
Losers - £2,000
Final:
James Wade 6-2 Raymond van Barneveld
Winner - £6,000
Runner-up - £3,000
By STUART PYKE
Photos courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC