Welshman Gerwyn Price put together a barnstorming run of results as he reached the Coral UK Open Final this weekend. This was Price’s 1st ever televised Final, just 3 years after he first qualified through Q-School and he displayed what fine darts that he is capable of. With his performances in the Qualifiers, Price secured himself 16th place on the Order of Merit to see him enter the Finals in the 3rd round.
45 year-old Englishman Justin Pipe was the 1st player to fall to Gezzy, comfortably defeating him 10-5 to kick-off his tournament. Price also quickly saw off his next opponent in Dave Pallett, coming out victorious in a 10-4 scoreline. Next up was a tricky match in the form of Paul Hogan, a Riley Amateur Qualifier. Hogan had shocked the darts world by beating World Number 2 Gary Anderson and Double World Champion Adrian Lewis before facing-off against Gerwyn. Price would succeed where the Premier League players failed and defeated Paul Hogan, racing away to a 6-2 lead and seeing out the match 10-6 to seal his place in Sunday’s Quarter-Final.
Price was then drawn against Ian White, who he’d previously lost to 5-6 in UK Open Qualifier 2. Both men put on a solid display of scoring, with the game going down to a deciding leg. White looked poised to take the match, with 3 darts at double 10 for the win whilst Price was sat on 160. White hit the neighbouring double however with his 1st dart to bust his score. The Iceman then walked up and kept his cool, finishing a heroic 160 checkout and sending the crowd wild to win 10-9. In his penultimate game of the tournament, Alan ‘Chuck’ Norris was the obstacle between Price and the Final. Both men put on yet another great match of darts, but Norris couldn’t keep up with Price’s high scoring and eventually succumbed 11-9 to the ex-rugby player .
That result set-up the all-Red Dragon showdown between Gerwyn Price and Peter Wright. The stage was set, a packed 4,000 crowd at Butlins, Minehead ready and Peter Wright’s trademark entrance got the party started. Peter Wright was firm favourite at the beginning of the tournament, with MvG and Phil Taylor both missing and the Scotsman was desperate to finally secure his first TV PDC title.
Wright raced to an early 8-3 lead and everything pointed to comfortable win for Snakebite, Price showed great character however to battle back to 8-6 before Wright rallied to claim the title 11-6. With this result Gerwyn bagged himself a £35,000 prize and the runners-up trophy, sending him up the PDC Order of Merit to 17th and just outside the Top 16.
Great Performance Iceman!