James Wade lost out in the semi-finals of the second Players Championship tournament in Spain – beaten by eventual winner Michael Smith!
And for the St Helens youngster, it will go down as a massive win in Benidorm, as he beat Justin Pipe 6-3 in the final.
It is Smith’s first Players Championship title to add to a UK Open qualifier that he won last year....but this win should see him now qualify for the World Matchplay in the summer, as well as all the other TV ranking tournaments in 2012!
Wade though, will certainly feel that he missed a trick.
Unicorn’s World No.3 lost only four legs in winning four matches en route to the quarter-finals, where he held his nerve to beat Alex Roy 6-5, after being 5-3 down....it was a second win over Roy in two days!
But missed doubles ultimately cost ‘The Machine’.
In the semi-final against Smith, the first four legs were all won on throw before Wade nailed a brilliant 161 to break and move ahead.....Wade though missed darts to go 4-2 up and the youngster got it back to 4-4.
Then came the key leg as Wade missed two darts at ‘tops’ and Smith pinched that 9th leg and closed out a 6-4 victory.
In the final, Smith denied Pipe another PC double....he raced into a 4-1 lead and held off a fightback to claim a huge win for rest of his career, and he is still only 21!
Well, Raymond van Barneveld will again be disappointed after another solid day’s work ended in the 4th Round.....for the second day running Barney lost in the last 16 – this time going down 6-3 to Kim Huybrechts.
The 3rd Round turned into a bit of a jinx for Team Unicorn, as no fewer than six men saw their hopes ended!
Saturday’s beaten finalist Paul Nicholson was beaten 6-3 by young Smith, Colin Osborne’s missed doubles cost him as he lost a last leg decider to Mensur Suljovic and Terry Jenkins suffered the same fate against Vincent van der Voort.
Wes Newton was a 6-3 loser to Dutchman Toon Greebe, Andy Hamilton went down 6-4 to Pipe, while Kevin Painter was well beaten 6-1 by Wade.
In round two, Peter Manley went down 6-3 to Dave Chisnall and Arron Monk was unlucky to lose 6-5 to Simon Whitlock.
The rest of Team Unicorn fell at the first hurdle on Sunday in Benidorm.....Devon Petersen (2-6) against Colin Lloyd, Jamie Caven (4-6) to Ross Smith, Joe Cullen (1-6) to Kim Hutbrechts and Steffi Luck also lost 6-1 to Wayne Jones.
Meanwhile, two-times BDO World Champion Ted Hankey got a taste of just how tough it will be in the PDC. ‘The Count’ was counted out for a second successive day in the Preliminary Round – this time beaten 6-1 by Dean Winstanley, who went onto reach the last 16 before being edged out by Dave Chisnall.
Results – Q/Finals:
James Wade 6-5 Alex Roy
Michael Smith 6-3 Dave Chisnall
Justin Pipe 6-3 Ross Smith
Matt Clark 6-4 Kim Hubrechts
Losers - £1,000
Semi-Finals:
Michael Smith 6-4 James Wade
Justin Pipe 6-5 Matt Clark
Losers - £2,000
Final:
Michael Smith 6-3 Justin Pipe
Winner - £6,000
Runner-up - £3,000
By STUART PYKE
Photo courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC