Van Gerwen (Steve Welsh/PDC)
Van Gerwen (Steve Welsh/PDC)

Players Championship Two: Michael van Gerwen collects his fifth darts title of 2018 by thrashing Corey Cadby


Michael van Gerwen thrashed Corey Cadby 6-1 to complete a Players Championship weekend double - although he had to survive a couple of scares earlier on Sunday.

The world number one had triumphed in the opening Players Championship event on Saturday with a 6-4 victory over James Wade and 24 hours later won the second - the 102nd singles title of his career and fifth of the season.

His one-sided 6-1 victory over Cadby sealed the top prize of £10,000 but it would have been a very different story had Luke Woodhouse converted one of his three match darts against MVG in the last 16.

Van Gerwen was taken to a deciding leg against Ryan Searle in the previous round but his other matches were much more straight-forward, beating Steve Lennon (6-1), Jamie Lewis (6-3), Adrian Lewis (6-2), Simon Stevenson (6-2) and Cadby.

Interestingly MVG is the only player to have won five titles before the end of February but he's done it twice before in 2015 and 2016.

The Dutchman, who averaged nearly 102 in the final, told : "I didn't have a good day, I played poorly, but I'm still really glad that I won to take tournament win number 102. Every time I had a chance (in the final) I took it and I didn't make a lot of mistakes.

"Corey is a very good player. I think he was trying too hard in the final, but I'm sure he can do some really good things in the future. With his quality, he could easily become a top ten player. He is a great talent and has a great throw."

The Aussie, who won his maiden title on the PDC tour at a recent UK Open Qualifying event, reached his second final of his debut season with victories over Lee Bryant (6-1), Jonny Clayton (6-5), Davy Van Baelen (6-3), Danny Noppert (6-1), Gary Anderson (6-4) and Ian White (6-3).

  • 2018 Premier League darts fixtures
  • 2018 PDC event calendar & results
  • 2017 PDC season results