Stephen Bunting signed off his Premier League campaign in style as he overcame defending champion Luke Humphries 6-3 in Sheffield to claim his second nightly win of the year.
The Bullet was in fine form throughout the night and, roared on by a South Yorkshire crowd keen to see Leeds United fan Humphries beaten, raced to a dominant victory with seven 180s and a 106.37 average.
At 5-3 up, Bunting started with six perfect darts to raise hopes of a nine-darter to clinch it but had to settle for finishing off a fabulous display in 12.
Despite his defeat in Thursday’s final, Humphries did enough on the night to move up to third overall in the season’s standings and avoid a semi-final against world champion Luke Littler on finals night at London’s O2 Arena next Thursday.
Instead, Humphries will take on Wales’ Jonny Clayton, with the Ferret’s compatriot Gerwyn Price facing Littler.
Victory moves Bunting above Gian van Veen and Michael van Gerwen to secure a fifth-place finish in the final standings.
Bunting won a superb quarter-final 6-3 against Clayton as both players averaged in excess of 100.
He then came from 2-0 down to beat Price in the semis, with a 161 checkout the first of three straight 100-plus finishes to clinch victory.
Despite coming up short in the final, Humphries had put in two superb performances to get there, averaging 105.24 to edge out Van Gerwen in a last-leg decider in the quarter-finals before thrashing Littler in the semis.
The world number two won six legs on the spin to win 6-1 and book his place in the final with another 100-plus average.
An out-of-sorts Littler had scraped past Josh Rock in the quarters despite an average of only 87.89 but missed the chance to break his own record points total and number of nightly wins in the Premier League.
Focus now turns to London next week with Littler aiming to win back the title he lost to Humphries last year.
But while a third straight final between the pair remains a possibility, Welsh duo Clayton and Price will have plenty to say about that.
