Wes Newton was on the end of an inspired Mervyn King performance in the final of the second Spanish Darts Trophy in Benidorm.
The Unicorn star suffered the disappointment of losing another Pro Tour final this year, but in the end, he was blitzed by some brilliant King finishing.
Newton had taken out the likes of World Champion Adrian Lewis, Steve Beaton and Mark Webster, who’d earlier hit a 9-darter!
The Fleetwood man then beat Raymond van Barneveld in the semi-finals after Barney had overcome Phil Taylor for the second time in 24 hours!
But the £5,000 earned by the Dutchman over the Spanish weekend should now seal his place at the Players Championship Finals in Doncaster in December.
In the semi-final showdown, Newton raced into a 4-1 lead, but Barneveld missed chances to get back into the game, as ‘The Warrior’ ran out a 6-3 winner.
King nailed a 138 finish to take the opening leg, but Newton kept in it, breaking the throw to lead 2-1 and 3-2….King kept pegging back and he then got on a roll.
Four consecutive legs to sweep to victory from King, including check-outs of 124, 98 and 136 to seal the win…..
However, there is no doubt that Barneveld will be disappointed not to come away with a tournament win after beating Taylor in both events.
He followed Saturday’s 6-5 win over ‘The Power’ with a terrific 6-4 victory over Taylor in the 3rd Round on Sunday, but couldn’t follow it through…..but there’s no doubt those two wins over Taylor will give Barneveld a huge confidence boost heading into the Grand Slam, Players Championship Finals and of course, the World Championship!
Jamie Caven’s semi-final showing is a welcome result, considering he has really struggled for large parts of the year.
His run included a bizarre victory in the all Unicorn quarter-final clash against Gary Anderson, because the Scot surprisingly conceded the match with Caven leading 5-4.
‘Jabba’ also whitewashed James Wade in the last 16, as Saturday’s Spanish Darts Trophy winner simply failed to fire.
Caven lost 6-2 in the semi-finals to the in-form King.
Colin Osborne’s confidence will also have received a big boost after another quarter-final appearance. The Derby man eventually lost 6-3 to King but the signs are there of an upturn in form heading into a huge couple of months on the darting calendar.
Taylor’s defeat to Barneveld came in the 3rd Round, while six Team Unicorn players were all defeated in the 2nd Round.
Joe Cullen failed to win a single leg against Wade, Arron Monk lost a last leg decider to John Henderson, Andy Hamilton was beaten 6-4 by Brian Woods, Peter Manley went down 6-2 to Vincent van der Voort, Kevin Painter suffered a surprise 6-5 defeat to Paul Rowley and Michael Rosenauer was edged out 6-4 by Justin Pipe.
Unicorn’s South African youngster Devon Petersen lost 6-1 in the 1st Round to Dennis Priestley.
Results – Q/Finals:
Mervyn King 6-3 Colin Osborne
Wes Newton 6-2 Mark Webster
Raymond van Barneveld 6-5 Peter Wright
Jamie Caven def Gary Anderson (5-4 Anderson conceded)
Losers - £1,000
Semi-Finals:
Mervyn King 6-2 Jamie Caven
Wes Newton 6-3 Raymond van Barneveld
Losers - £2,000
Final:
Mervyn King 6-3 Wes Newton
Winner - £6,000
Runner-up - £3,000
By STUART PYKE
Photo courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC