Anderson puts bite on Wright
GARY ANDERSON banked £100,000 for a weekend’s work in Brighton – enough to buy 51,282 sticks of rock – by winning the
Champions League of Darts.
In the Professional Darts Corporation’s annual excursion on BBC airwaves, Anderson beat Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright 11-4 in a one-sided final.
And after landing his
16th TV title – the 15th came only two months ago at the World Matchplay in Blackpool – Anderson checked into Forty Towers.
The flying Scotsman said: “Three of the semi-finalists here are in our forties, so there’s life in the old guard just yet.
“I’m going to celebrate with a good sleep because the party animals outside my hotel window kept we awake into the small hours.”
Struggling with a bad back all weekend, Anderson almost went out in the group stage of the £250,000 Paddy Power tournament.
But once he had disposed of reigning champion Mensur Suljovic 11-4 in the last four, he played with the authority of a man running into form at the business end of the year.
And with just 11 weeks to go until the PDC world championship at Alexandra Palace, 47-year-old Anderson is the form horse they will have to catch.
Wright beat world No.1 Michael van Gerwen 11-9 in the semi-final, but was never in the hunt for the top prize.
Two-time world champion Anderson reeled off six of the first seven legs in the final.
Wright said: “I ran out of steam, and out of luck.”