On the hottest day of the year so far, Dave Chisnall took the honours to win the Players Championship tournament in Crawley.
Terry Jenkins and Raymond van Barneveld were the best Team Unicorn performers, but Chisnall took the PC 5 title in style, beating Ian White 6-2 in the final.
The St Helens man actually beat Barneveld 6-2 in the quarter-finals, before securing a 6-2 win over ‘The Bull’ in the semi’s....Jenkins was playing for the first time without his famous moustache, having had it shaved off for charity on Friday!
But Jenkins is coming back into form at the right time, although Barney will be disappointed that he didn’t go any further because he looked comfortable all day.
It was Chisnall’s second Players Championship tournament win this year and it was never in doubt after he raced into a 5-0 lead against White in the final.
If you are wondering where Phil Taylor was, well he is enjoying a well earned break ahead of the UK Open Finals in two weeks at Bolton.
In many ways though, Team Unicorn youngster Keegan Brown has been one of the stars of the show this weekend in Crawley.
Following on from his recent successes on the PDC Unicorn Youth Tour, he has qualified for the second big event on the new European circuit and then he enjoyed his best ever run in a Players Championship tournament.
On Friday, Brown secured impressive wins over the vastly experienced Mark Dudbridge and Dennis Smith to qualify for the German Darts Championship, which takes place in Berlin next month.
And on Saturday, Brown pocketed £600 for reaching the last 16 of the PC event in Crawley....after a brilliant 6-2 victory over Unicorn stablemate Kevin Painter, the young man then disposed of Andy Relf 6-2 before claiming the scalp of Vincent van der Voort 6-3.
He was eventually beaten 6-2 by Justin Pipe, but Keegan Brown again showed just what a prospect he is.
Andy Hamilton also got through to the last 16, but lost 6-2 to Ronnie Baxter.
As far as the other Unicorn players were concerned, a disappointing day.....in round three, Paul Nicholson went down 6-3 to Kim Huybrechts, James Wade was a 6-4 loser to Hamilton and Jamie Caven was beaten in a deciding leg by Ronnie Baxter.
In the 2nd Round, there were defeats for Wes Newton, Arron Monk and Gary Anderson....the Scot was a surprise 6-4 loser to Ian White, Newton was beaten 6-5 by Jelle Klaasen and Monk lost 6-2 to Chisnall.
Five Unicorn players fell at the first hurdle....Colin Osborne (3-6 James Hubbard), Painter who lost to Keegan Brown of course, Steffi Luck (2-6 Andy Relf), Joe Cullen (4-6 Richie Burnett) and Devon Petersen (2-6 to Caven).
Crawley results – Players Championship 5:
Quarter-Finals:
Dave Chisnall 6-3 Raymond van Barneveld
Terry Jenkins 6-4 Justin Pipe
Ian White 6-4 Ronnie Baxter
Mark Webster 6-2 Kim Huybrechts
Losers - £1,000
Semi-Finals:
Dave Chisnall 6-2 Terry Jenkins
Ian White 6-2 Mark Webster
Losers - £2,000
Final:
Dave Chisnall 6-2 Ian White
Winner - £6,000
Runner-up - £3,000
By STUART PYKE
Photo courtesy PDC