Players Championship: Michael van Gerwen wins in Crawley

Michael van Gerwen claimed his eighth PDC title of the year by beating Michael Smith to win the 14th Players Championship event of 2014 in Crawley.

After struggling at the K2 in the first event of the weekend, world champion van Gerwen returned to form on Sunday as he swept through the field before beating Smith 6-4 in the final.

The Dutchman dropped only three legs in the first three rounds as he beat Glenn Spearing, Pete Dyos and John Henderson.

Back-to-back 6-3 wins over Kurt Parry and Dean Winstanley followed to set up a semi-final showdown with Adrian Lewis.

Lewis had edged a tight quarter-final against Dave Chisnall 6-5 to seal his second semi-final spot of the weekend, although he was whitewashed 6-0 by Gary Anderson on Saturday.

And the Stoke star once again faltered in the last four as van Gerwen sealed a 6-2 success.

Smith had also enjoyed a good run to the final having beaten Steve Hine, Magnus Caris, John Bowles and Andy Smith in the first four rounds.

He then disposed of in-form youngster Benito van de Pas with a stunning average of 107.93 to seal a place in the semi-finals against Ian White, who was also having a good day.

World Youth Championship runner-up Rowby-John Rodriguez had already beaten Saturday’s winner Anderson, as well as Paul Nicholson and Jamie Caven before White comfortably saw him off 6-1 in the last eight.

However, it would be Smith who maintained his form as he defeated White 6-2 to make it through to his second final in a week, having also reached the last two in Singelfingen last weekend.

But as was the case in Germany, Smith missed out at the final hurdle again as van Gerwen stormed into a 4-1 lead in the final before eventually sealing a 6-4 win, taking out 32 in the last leg to take the title and the £10,000 winner’s cheque.