Issue 10|Price retains Grand Slam Crown DecemberIssue 2019 10 Interview Dennis priestly The two-time World Champion and legend of the game chats to us about his career and the current state of the game. Page 28-29 preview PDC AND BDO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS We take an in-depth look at both showpiece events in London as the best players in the world compete for the richest prizes in the sport. Page 21-37 INTERVIEW win winmau DARYL GURNEY darts SCOTT MITCHELL Courtesy of the guys at Winmau, a set We grab an exclusive interview with the 2015 BDO of Daryl Gurney darts will be up for World Champion, as “Scotty Dog” discusses his life and grabs as part of Issue Ten’s competition. career. Details inside...... Page 32-34 Page 42 Players Championship Finals interviews We review the event in Minehead, where Michael van Gerwen We get insights from three PDC World Championship again reigned supreme. participants in Ryan Joyce, Danny Baggish and Nitin Kumar. Page 4 Pages 36-37, 30-31 and 34-35 PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig, PDC Van Gerwen gets the price right with fifth Players title ichael Van Gerwen picked up his fully exploit. fifth Players Championship Finals From that title after beating Gerwyn Price point 11-9 in a thrilling final in Minehead. onwards the Van Gerwen had also hit a magical Iceman was nine-dart finish during his 6-5 faultless, second-round win against Adrian seeing out M Lewis on the previous afternoon. the game by 11 legs to 8. Price missed four darts to send the game into a deciding leg before the World number 1 nailed Van Gerwen was made to work as hard double 5 to win back the title he lost to Daryl to make the final after beating Ian White by the Gurney 12 months ago. same scoreline to make his fifth consecutive final at the pre-Christmas event. The pair took 17 darts between them in the first leg to hit the first double which Van Gerwen hit to World number 1 raced into a 4-1 lead early on who break throw. then kept that buffer throughout the match. A slow start from the recent Grand Slam champion White kept it within two legs before MVG restored saw him trail 3-2 at the first break. his three-leg advantage to make it 8-5 before a 112 checkout made it 9-6 to the three-times World The Dutchman won the first leg after the interval Champion. to extend the lead to two before a share of the next four saw Van Gerwen take a 6-4 lead at the And Van Gerwen stayed on course for his fifth title halfway mark. in Minehead by beating Diamond 11-8 with a 102 average. Missed doubles after that break would rue MVG as Price came back to lead the game for the first In the afternoon’s quarter-finals, Ian White broke his time at 7-6. quarter-final duck at the tenth attempt in a PDC Major televised event after beating William O’Connor 10-9. Van Gerwen would drawback level again in leg 16 Diamond hit an 11 darter in the deciding leg to make thanks to a 72 checkout. it into his first televised semi-final of any description The three-time World Champion went on to win since the 1997 News of the World Championships. the next two legs to make it 10-8 and to go within Michael Van Gerwen branded Mervyn King “bad one leg of the title. for darts” after he beat the former World Masters But Price wouldn’t give up on a chance to win his champion 10-6. King had been suffering from sciatica third major title without a fight and hits tops to in his back and was visibly seen playing through the reduce the deficit to 10-9. pain barrier. However, Price missed four darts to force a Gerwyn Price hit a 108 average in beating Stephen decider which MVG punished to lift the Players Bunting 10-3. Despite averaging 100 throughout the Championship for the fifth time in Minehead. match, the Bullet had no reply for the Iceman’s surge towards the semi-finals. In the evening’s semi-finals, Price was the first to book his place in the final after an 11-8 win over Chris Dobey saw off Raymond van Barneveld 10-2 in Chris Dobey. a scrappy last-eight tie. The highlight for the Tyneside thrower was a 167 checkout to knock out the five- Dobey raced into a 4-1 lead before Price pulled off time World Champion. a succession of 11 darters to level it at 4-4. Hollywood kept edging his nose in front in a back words: hENRY DEACON and forth contest before missing four darts at the double to make it 9-8, a mistake which saw Price 04 www.dartsplanet.tv Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig, PDC GRAND SLAM OF DARTS Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig, PDC Price defends Grand Slam of Darts in remarkable fashion erwyn Price successfully defended his incorporated in an eight-leg dominance from Price Grand Slam of Darts title after denying as he proceeded to the cusp of victory. A slight blip Peter Wright at Wolverhampton’s from the now world number three allowed Wright to Aldersley Leisure Village. pull another solitary leg back, though, ‘The Iceman’ kept his cool, nailing double five to become one of After having lifted a maiden major seven players to defend a PDC major. crown last year in a controversial clash against Gary Anderson, Price retained After enduring defeat in yet another PDC major final, G possession of his prestigious Eric Wright said: “I had no answer. Beating Michael [van Bristow Trophy, defeating Wright 16-6 in a one-sided Gerwen] and then the way he played there, I thought final. A relentless performance – which included 11 he was trying for the record [average in a Grand Slam maximums and a scintillating average of 107.86 – of Darts final]. I was chasing him all the way through, proved only too much for a valiant ‘Snakebite’ – who and when he missed, I was lucky if I was on 100-and- loses for a second time at the final hurdle of the something! He played fantastic all the way through.” Grand Slam. At the scene where he was dubbed a darting villain, “I’m chuffed to bits,” an ecstatic Price told pdc.tv. “I Price received a warm reception upon lifting the knew in the middle of the game that I was playing prestigious title for a second successive year, firmly really well. I was hitting trebles for fun and putting embedding his name into not only the history books Peter under pressure, and he wasn’t playing his but also the sport’s current elite. best. I knew that I was at the top of my game, and I felt comfortable all the way through that game. I’m happy to play the way I did – Peter’s a world-class player and for me to win 16-6 is outstanding. This week the crowd has been fantastic for me. To come through that game and have the cheers at the end of it is a much better feeling than last year. I’m not used to this, but they truly have got behind me, and I appreciate it.” After seeing off world number one and three-time champion Michael van Gerwen in the semi-finals, Price seized an early advantage in the final, pinning Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig, PDC a 100 finish to move one up, before moving into the interval with a slender 3-2 lead. Outshots of 111, 88 and 84 helping Price move 7-3 adrift, though, back- to-back legs from ‘Snakebite’ halved the Welshman’s lead. Despite the Scotsman’s perseverance, Price failed to regress, and an ice-cool onslaught followed. An 11-darter and a 130 checkout on the bull was Words: BEN HUDD @dartsplanettv 05 world championship preview special Photo Credit: We Love Betting 2020 who will lift the famous pdc and bdo trophies? Words: JAMIE DOULT Photo Credit: Live Darts 2020 PDC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW ichael van Gerwen attempts to land his finals, having also lost the European Darts Championship fourth world title when the 2020 PDC World final to Rob Cross in late October. Darts Championships begins at London’s The purple patch at the end of 2019 has seen Price rise Alexandra Palace on December 14. up to third in the world ranking, correlating with the same Van Gerwen beat Michael Smith 7-4 to seeding, his career-high. win the title on New Year’s Day and will be Such is his form, and he has been installed as the second looking to successfully retain the biggest favourite behind van Gerwen to win his first World Darts M title the sport has to offer for the first time. title, with odds as little as 5/1. The World number 1 will head to Ally Pally a 5/4 favourite Price will also be aware of his record at Alexandra Palace with title sponsors William Hill to try and lift the Sid Waddell and will be looking to avenge a record which had seen Trophy once again. him get through his opening game just once back in 2018 However, MVG has been given a tough task to open up with when he lost out in the last 16. as he faces the winner of the First Round game between To make matters worse, he is stuck in a quarter which Jelle Klaasen or Kevin Burness.