Gary Anderson put on a stunning performance at the Players Championship 24 yesterday in Wigan, registering five games with a 100+ average and a 9-darter before eventually losing in the semi-finals to Wessel Nijman.
The Players Championship floor events are good for fans to get some ‘filler’ viewing between bigger tournaments.
A select number of games are streamed and when the best players are battling it out in a 128-player field, there’s usually a few noteworthy moments from each event.
Yesterday at the PC24, Gary Anderson provided one such moment.
He might go down as having the best floor event at the Players Championship ever…
THE FLYING SCOTSMAN IS FLYING! 🚂🏴
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) October 1, 2024
Gary Anderson… THAT IS INSANE!
The Flying Scotsman has just beaten Luke Humphries 6-2 averaging 114.41, which takes his tournament average up to a staggering 109!https://t.co/YyBPPwoMK8 | #PC24 pic.twitter.com/pJruHAlsRa
In just a few short hours of play, Anderson registered five games with a 100+ average (two of which were 110+), had a 114.41 average against World Number 1 Luke Humphries and hit a nine-darter just for good measure…
See also: 9 most Memorable nine-dart finishes of all time
Anderson’s run for the day looked like this:
Top 128 – Won 6-2 against Jules van Dongen (104.22 avg)
Top 64 – Won 6-1 against Jamie Hughes (106.92 avg & nine-dart finish)
Top 32 – Won 6-3 against Dimitri Van den Bergh (111.03 avg)
Top 16 – Won 6-2 against Luke Humphries (114.41 avg)
Quarter-finals – Won 6-5 against Dom Taylor (108.78 avg)
He averaged 106.52 and registered 22 x 180s across 6 matches before he would lose to eventual winner Wessel Nijman in the semi-finals.
Putting in performances like this will have top players on high alert as Anderson will be coming into some of the major tournaments as an unseeded player and early round nightmare draw for the top 16…
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Gary Anderson Is a Nightmare Draw for the Top 16
Anderson is now into his 16th official season with the PDC and he is one of the most accomplished players in the game.
We spend quite a bit of time on players’ Wikipedia pages because the tables and colour coding for tournaments played along with placings for each is quick to glance through and pull some stats from.
Well, going through Anderson’s page (along with Taylor and MVG) always takes ages to find the info we want because he’s just played in and won so much through his career!
This has slowed down in recent years though.
The Scotsman hasn’t been the same threat in major tournaments from 2020 onwards, though he did make the 2021 PDC World Championship final.
Despite his performance at majors, Anderson has been putting up 180’s and averages that have only been second to Luke Littler across the entire 2024 campaign.
@TheRedBit180 put up a stat on X showing the players at the 2024 Players Championships to have registered 110+ averages.
Chizzy and Price are in second place with two each, then a dozen players have one to their names.
Anderson has 9!
25 times players averaged over 110 in this Players Championship season…
— TheRedBit 🔴 (@TheRedBit180) October 1, 2024
𝟭𝟭𝟬+ 𝗔𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 – 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽.
9 🏴 Gary Anderson
2 🏴 Dave Chisnall
2 🏴 Gerwyn Price
1 ◼️ 12 players#Darts I #PDCProTour I #PC24
His performances on the floor indicate that his game is still at the elite level and yesterday will have been enough to catch the eye of some players going into the business end of the season with the World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and World Championships just around the corner.
Ranked 24th in the Order of Merit, Anderson is going into some tournaments unseeded and therefore gets drawn against the top 16.
When playing like he is though, that seems to be more of an issue for the players in the top 16 who face him in the early rounds.
At the World Matchplay, Michael Smith was drawn against him in the first round and while he did enough to get past him, he has now been drawn against Anderson again for the World Grand Prix next week.
If Anderson brings this standard to the stage he can be an underdog and serious threat going into these major tournaments
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