GERWYN PRICE made it back-to-back PDC title wins with an 8-4 victory over Ricky Evans in the final of Players Championship 6, on a day which saw a nine-darter hit in Barnsley on Sunday.
Price followed up his Players Championship 5 triumph on Saturday with a series of stunning displays, ending the weekend with an incredible ten ton-plus averages from his 14 wins as he picked up his sixth PDC title.
The Welshman, who previously won back-to-back Players Championship events across separate weekends in 2016, became the 13th ProTour weekend double-event winner in PDC history.
The Grand Slam of Darts Champion began the day by edging past Harry Ward 6-5, before a stunning 112.7 average saw Price whitewash Zoran Lerchbacher 6-0.
The Welsh number one, who has made an unbeaten start to his second Premier League season, made it back-to-back whitewash wins against Josh Payne before a fourth consecutive 100-plus average saw Price power past David Pallett 6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals.
There, he overcame Adrian Lewis 6-4, and followed it up with a 106 average to comfortably defeat Nathan Aspinall 7-2, before proving too strong for Evans to end the weekend with £20,000 in prize money, winning the title with a spectacular 170 finish.
"This weekend I proved to myself and a lot of people that I can play top quality darts," said Price, who will return to Premier League action in Exeter on Thursday.
"It's all a case of having confidence in myself, believing in my ability and I think I played phenomenally well all day.
"I'm happy with my consistency over the weekend and I couldn't have asked for a better way to win it than with a 170.
"Hopefully now I can carry this form into the Premier League and I can keep performing to this standard and win another TV title along the way."
Price began the final in untouchable form, racing into a 4-0 lead with two breaks of throw, before Evans stopped the rot with back-to-back legs, followed by a 108 checkout to go within a leg of Price at 4-3.
However, Price found double top with his last dart in hand to halt the Evans comeback, which he soon followed with a 105 finish using two double tops to break throw and make it 6-3.
Price held throw to go within a leg of the title, but after he missed eight match darts, Evans found double four to keep the contest alive.
Price was quick to put those missed darts behind him, as the following leg saw him land the biggest checkout in the game to seal an 8-4 victory.
Despite defeat in the final, it was a successful day for Evans who ended his five-year wait for a Players Championship final berth.
The Kettering thrower claimed the scalps of Daryl Gurney and Krzysztof Ratajski on his way to the quarter-finals, where he overcame Kyle Anderson and then Danny Noppert to reach the final.
Another top class day of action saw Ritchie Edhouse strike the tenth nine-dart finish of the 2019 PDC campaign, and the fifth perfect leg in three days of action in South Yorkshire, in his last 16 defeat to Noppert.
A day of surprise early exits saw Premier League stars Peter Wright, Michael Smith, Mensur Suljovic and Raymond van Barneveld all go out at the first round stage.
Former World Champion Rob Cross reached the last 32 along with Simon Whitlock, who ended his winless start to the year.
The next Players Championship events will be held across the weekend of March 16-17 at Wigan's Robin Park Tennis Centre, with live streaming from two boards simultaneously in the new-look PDCTV-HD.
See full Players Championship 6 results in DartConnect.
Players Championship 6
Sunday February 24, The Barnsley Metrodome
Last 16
Danny Noppert 6-4 Ritchie Edhouse
John Henderson 6-5 Jonny Clayton
Ricky Evans 6-1 Krzysztof Ratajski
Kyle Anderson 6-4 Rowby-John Rodriguez
Jermaine Wattimena 6-0 Benito van de Pas
Nathan Aspinall 6-5 Chris Dobey
Adrian Lewis 6-2 Ryan Joyce
Gerwyn Price 6-3 David Pallett
Quarter-Finals
Danny Noppert 6-2 John Henderson
Ricky Evans 6-4 Kyle Anderson
Nathan Aspinall 6-3 Jermaine Wattimena
Gerwyn Price 6-4 Adrian Lewis
Semi-Finals
Ricky Evans 7-4 Danny Noppert
Gerwyn Price 7-2 Nathan Aspinall
Final
Gerwyn Price 8-4 Ricky Evans