Gerwyn Price (born 7 March 1985) is a Welsh darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation events. He broke into the top 32 on the PDC Order of Merit in 2016 and soon afterwards won his first Pro Tour title. In 2017 he was the runner-up at the UK Open, Price's first major event final. Price has also played rugby union for Welsh Premier Division sides.
Video Gerwyn Price
Rugby
Price has played as a hooker for Welsh Premier Division sides Neath and Cross Keys as well as rugby league with South Wales Scorpions. He also had a brief spell at Pro12 side Glasgow Warriors as injury cover for their first choice players. He ended his rugby career in 2014 in order to concentrate on playing darts full-time.
Maps Gerwyn Price
Darts
Price began playing darts for his local side Markham Welfare, before playing in the Super League for Aberbargoed. Welsh darts professional Barrie Bates advised him to enter Qualifying School to join the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in January 2014 and Price was successful in the second event. He won six matches on the day concluding with a 5-3 victory over Rowby-John Rodriguez to earn a two-year tour card. He qualified for the 2014 UK Open and lost 5-2 to Aden Kirk in the second round. He twice reached the last 16 stage of Players Championship events during the first half of 2014, losing to Michael van Gerwen and Stephen Bunting. In July, Price averaged 98.32 in beating former world number one Colin Lloyd 6-2 at the European Darts Open. In the second round he led Gary Anderson 2-0 but went on to lose 6-3. At the 13th Players Championship, Price saw off Lloyd, Kirk, James Wade and Wayne Jones to advance to the quarter-finals for the first time, where he was edged out 6-5 by Adrian Lewis.
Price qualified for the European Darts Trophy in Leipzig during mid September. There, he beat Bernd Roith 6-3 in the first round to face Steve Beaton in the second round. Thanks to a great performance, which included the tournament's highest finish of 167, he saw off Beaton 6-3 and won against Vincent van der Voort in the following round. He nearly qualified for the 2014 World Grand Prix, for which a place in the semi-finals was needed, but was beaten 6-3 in the quarter-finals by Andy Hamilton. Price's impressive start to his darting career continued by reaching his first semi-final at the 19th Players Championship where he lost 6-3 to Ian White.
2015
The £12,750 he earned in Pro Tour events during 2014 saw him finish 39th on the Order of Merit to claim the eighth of sixteen places that were on offer to non-qualified players for the 2015 PDC World Championship. Price missed one dart at tops to level at one set all against Peter Wright in the first round and was beaten 3-0. His successful year saw him start 2015 ranked world number 59.
Price was knocked out of the preliminary round of the 2015 UK Open 5-2 by Matt Padgett. On his way to his first quarter-final of the year, Price eliminated Adrian Lewis 6-4 with an average of 105.78 at the second Players Championship event, but he went on to lose 6-2 to James Wade. At the Gibraltar Darts Trophy, Price defeated two top 16 players in Robert Thornton and Simon Whitlock to play in his second career European Tour quarter-final, where compatriot Jamie Lewis narrowly won 6-5. In total during the first half of 2015 Price lost in four quarter-finals on the Pro Tour and reached the semi-finals of the eighth Players Championship where he lost 6-4 to Adrian Lewis. These results sealed his qualification for the World Matchplay through the Pro Tour Order of Merit with Price seeing off Michael Smith 10-4 in his début in the event. He then produced the performance of his career to date as he defeated two-time world champion Lewis 13-10, but could only average 88.17 in his first major quarter-final during a 16-7 loss to Peter Wright. Price met Smith again in the first round of the World Grand Prix with the tie going to a deciding set in which Price established a 2-0 leg lead. He would miss two match darts as Smith levelled and in the final leg Price was unable to score a point as he missed a total of 15 darts at doubles in the double-start event. He led Ian White 9-8 in the second round of the Players Championship Finals, but went on to lose 10-9.
2016
Andrew Gilding won each set in the first round of the 2016 World Championship by three legs to one in beating Price 3-0. In February at the fifth UK Open Qualifier, Price defeated Mark Webster 6-1 and Mensur Suljovi? 6-3 to reach his first PDC final, but he was denied the title by world number one Michael van Gerwen who triumphed 6-2. In the seventh Players Championship, Price won through to another final and this time took the title by coming back from 3-0 down against Peter Wright to win 6-3. He also took the eighth event as he averaged 108 in the final during a 6-1 victory over Jamie Caven. After knocking out Kim Huybrechts 10-8 at the World Matchplay, Price would face Adrian Lewis in the second round for the second year in a row. Before the match Lewis stated that Price's win over him 12 months ago was lucky and that Price was a "big mouth who's never won anything and never will win anything". The pre-match tension seemed to affect both players as both averaged in the 80s with Lewis prevailing 11-5. Price lost 2-0 in the first round of the World Grand Prix to Benito van de Pas and 10-2 to Michael van Gerwen in the second round of the European Championship. Wins over Scott Waites and Robert Thornton saw him top his group on his début at the Grand Slam of Darts. He missed one match dart against Brendan Dolan in the last 16 in a 10-9 defeat.
2017
After taking the opening set against Jonny Clayton in their first round match at the 2017 World Championship, Price lost three in a row to be beaten 3-1. He was ranked 20th on the Order of Merit afterwards. He defeated Justin Pipe 10-5, David Pallett 10-4 and Paul Hogan 10-6 at the UK Open to reach the quarter-finals. Ian White was on 20 to win 10-9, but hit a double 15 to burst his score and Price stepped in with a 160 checkout to progress through to the semi-finals where he was locked at 9-9 with Alan Norris. Norris missed three darts to take the 19th leg and Price finished 100 with two double tops, before breaking throw in the next to win 11-9. In his first major final he was 7-2 down to Peter Wright, before reducing his deficit to 8-6. However, Price then lost the last three legs to be beaten 11-6.
Victories over Finland, Ireland and Russia helped Price and Mark Webster into the semi-finals of the World Cup. A pair of 4-2 wins over the Belgian team of Kim and Ronny Huybrechts saw them play in the final, where their only point came courtesy of a Webster win over Raymond van Barneveld as they went down 3-1 to the Dutch.
2018
In the 2018 World Championship Price won in the first round of the World Championship for the first time when he beat Ted Evets 3-0. In the second round Price beat Ian White 4-1. In the third round Price faced the defending World Champion Michael van Gerwen. Van Gerwen won the first two sets but then Price won seven legs in a row to go two sets all and ahead in the fifth set. Van Gerwen won the fifth and sixth set which meant Price lost the match 2-4.
World Championship results
PDC
- 2015: First round (lost to Peter Wright 0-3)
- 2016: First round (lost to Andrew Gilding 0-3)
- 2017: First round (lost to Jonny Clayton 1-3)
- 2018: Third round (lost to Michael van Gerwen 2-4)
Career finals
PDC major finals: 1 (1 runner-up)
PDC team finals: 1 (1 runner-up)
Performance timeline
Personal life
In 2010, Price was punched outside a pub in Bargoed which required 42 stitches to his forehead and five to his chin, as well as suffering a brain haemorrhage and nerve damage to an eyebrow. His attacker received a 12-month jail term. Price also received a suspended sentence for assaulting another man in a related incident.
Notes
References
External links
- Player profile on Gerwyn Price from Dartsdatabase
Source of article : Wikipedia