Wolverhampton saw ‘The Iceman’s 16-8 victory over ‘Snakebite’ on Sunday
By Isti Miskolczy
Photo courtesy of Lawrence Lustig/PDC.
The Scottish fans of Peter Wright must have been a little disappointed after he lost the Grand Slam of Darts final against Welsh counterpart Gerwyn Price. However, as Price had been dominating the whole tournament since the beginning, his 16-8 victory over Wright was not much of a surprise.
Both players had to win 16 legs in total to win the match and thus the tournament. A leg is completed and won by the player who decreases from 501 points to zero the faster.
With this victory in Wolverhampton’s Aldersley Leisure Village, the Welshman claimed his third Grand Slam of Darts title and fifth PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) major title in total in his career. He also secured the £125,000 top prize, plus a £3,500 Group Winner bonus.
Albeit currently being the world number one and two in the world rankings both competitors had to extremely concentrate and bring out their best during their road to the final. In the quarter-finals Peter Wright claimed a 16-13 victory over the only female player of the tournament, Fallon Sherrock (who had defeated Mensur Suljovic before) and in the semi-finals he beat Michael Smith 16-12. Gerwyn Price won his quarter-final against Jonny Clayton 16-12 and his semi-final against James Wade 16-9.
“I am thrilled to win this again” told Gerwyn Price. “It is tough to win against the best players in the world, but it is a big pat on my back, and I am chuffed” he added.
"I got to the final and played some nice darts on the way through, and I've got no excuses, I didn't push Gezzy" reacted Wright.
Price opened the game with a convenient 3-0 lead but then Wright climbed back up to 4-3. However, ‘The Iceman’ then raised the roof by winning six sets in a row and thus bringing the score up to 10-3. From then on, they each won one set after each other until 13-6 by the end Price won by a healthy 16-8 margin.
“He is the number one in the world; the World Champion and he is hard work to beat here. […]. “I am disappointed” expressed his feelings to Peter Wright after the game. His defeat was his third in the last six years when it comes to the Grand Slam finals.
The chase for the Eric Bristow Trophy is thus over and going to be repeated in a year from now. Nevertheless, the next televised PDC event will be just in a week’s time: the Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals will be held between 26-28 November.
