Wesley Plaisier showed bottle and grit to put his name in the darting history books by claiming his first PDC Players Championship title win in Wigan.

The Dutchman pocketed £15,000 and complied strong performances against some of the PDC’s best talent to win the 28th floor tournament of the year in an 8-7 win over Josh Rock.

The recent World Masters champion kicked off his afternoon with a convincing 6-2 win over Canadian’s Matt Campbell. All six legs won by the Dutchman were completed in 15 darts or less.

Plaisier matched his dominance in his second and third round matches with one sided wins of 6-2 and 6-1 over Ritchie Edhouse and Florian Hempel to book a Last 16 spot. His averages of 100.71 and 91.24 was significantly better than his opponents and dominated in both matchups.

From the Last 16 onwards the Dutchman would repeatedly hold his nerve time and time again to win the whole tournament, with his first obstacle coming against the ever difficult match with Krzysztof Ratajski. The Polish Eagle fought hard to force the encounter into the deciding 11th leg but Plaisier held throw with a 16-darter.

Meanwhile while he took on Jose De Sousa in the quarter-finals and complied a 3-1 lead together, De Sousa replied with four legs of his own to go one leg away from a victory. The Dutchman showed tenacity to stop the rot and produce two 15 dart legs to force a last leg decider before checking out in 13 darts which was his best leg of the match.

A narrow 7-5 win over fellow countryman Danny Noppert in the semi-final saw him progress through to the final with Rock, who threw a nine-darter earlier in the day.

No player was able to get a foothold in the match with both players at a very marginal standard in the end, with Rock averaging 92.66 to Plaisier’s 92.24. Rock missed multiple match darts for the title which allowed the Dutchman to clear up and cement himself in the winners enclosure.

Wesley Plaisier wins PDC Players Championship 28 in Wigan

Last 16

Jonny Clayton 6-5 Dave Chisnall

Josh Rock 6-2 George Killington

Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-1 Wessel Nijman

Ryan Joyce 6-4 Mervyn King

Wesley Plaisier 6-5 Krzysztof Ratajski

Jose de Sousa 6-1 Mensur Suljovic

Michael Smith 6-4 Ryan Searle

Danny Noppert 6-5 Mickey Mansell

Quarter-Finals

Josh Rock 6-4 Jonny Clayton

Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-2 Ryan Joyce

Wesley Plaisier 6-5 Jose de Sousa

Danny Noppert 6-5 Michael Smith

Semi-Finals

Josh Rock 7-6 Dirk van Duijvenbode

Wesley Plaisier 7-5 Danny Noppert

Final

Josh Rock 8-7 Wesley Plaisier