Stephen Bunting ended his winless start to the Premier League in spectacular fashion, by winning night nine of the competition in Berlin.
The Bullet defeated Nathan Aspinall and Luke Humphries before sealing the deal with a 6-5 victory in the final against Gerwyn Price.
Speaking to Sky Sports after his triumph, he said: “”This is such a special moment. There have been times during the Premier League where I’ve thought: ‘Could I finish on zero points?’. To get off the mark tonight and win a night, it’s such a special feeling. It was a monkey on my back, the first game. I’d felt so good in the practice room – I hit a nine-darter – and that gave me a lot of confidence.”
Bunting’s run to glory began in the quarter-final, where he was to face fellow Englishman Nathan Aspinall. The Bullet looked to have started shakily, but he was let off by sloppiness on the doubles from The Asp, and was able to take the first leg. Despite Aspinall holding throw in the next leg, the way he won that opener seemed to calm Bunting down, and he would go on a rally. He won the next three legs, which included a break of throw in leg four, to put himself 4-1 up and in firm control.
Aspinall took the next leg, but that was to be a temporary halt to the regular proceedings, and a break of throw in leg eight was the moment which secured Stephen Bunting a 6-2 victory, by extension granting him his first points of the season after a gruelling nine weeks, and passage to a first semi-final of the campaign.
There were only two other quarter-finals tonight, and in these Luke Humphries battled back from a shaky start to dispatch of Rob Cross 6-3, and Chris Dobey took advantage of rare poor doubling from Luke Littler to record a 6-2 victory.
Michael van Gerwen was supposed to play Gerwyn Price in the remaining quarter-final, but he was forced to withdraw from the night due to a shoulder injury. This meant that Price received a bye through to the semi-final, and an extra two points to add to his tally.
Bunting was to face a tough opponent in the semi-final, in world number one Luke Humphries. Despite this, The Bullet began very well, storming into a 2-0 lead and finding himself a break up. It looked as if the game may have turned on its head when Cool Hand won the next two legs, which included a break back in the fourth leg to bring the game level, and also give him the advantage of throw.
Bunting was determined to not let the game slip away from him though, and he rallied back, going on another run of consecutive legs, this time four in a row, which when over secured The Bullet yet another 6-2 victory, and what seemed like an improbable outcome of a first nightly final of his Premier League campaign.
In the other semi-final, Gerwyn Price stormed past Chris Dobey, also by a scoreline of 6-2, to secure himself a place in a third nightly final of the year, where he would be looking to keep his 100% record at that stage going.
It was a chaotic final, which was summed up by the first six legs of the match. They all ended up being breaks of throw, which created a topsy turvy final which was deadlocked at 3-3. The mammoth run of breaks was ended by Bunting in the seventh leg, which put him 4-3 up and looking to be in control.
In keeping with the nature of the game though, he lost the next two legs, which included a break by Price which put him 5-4 up and within a leg of a third nightly triumph. But Bunting had come too far to let the night slip from his grasp. He broke straight back, to set up a thrilling finale to a thrilling contest. In the last leg, The Bullet held his nerve, and took out a 107 checkout, to record a 6-5 victory, and shock the darting world by picking up his first nightly crown of the season just hours after registering his first points.
Despite a quarter-final exit, Littler’s lead at the top of the table was so huge that he remains there, still on 26 points. The gap has been cut to six however, thanks to a semi-final run by Humphries, who reaches 20 points. A final for Price was enough to move him into third, on 15 points, while Michael van Gerwen remains in the top four, but due to withdrawing tonight remains on 13 points. Next week the league returns to the UK, when Manchester plays host to the action.