Daryl Gurney crashes out of Champions League of Darts

Making his debut in the Champions League the World Grand Prix champion beat Dave Chisnall 10-7 in his last game to give himself a chance of making the semi-finals but destiny was not in his own hands.

Indeed, Gurney needed world No1 Michael van Gerwen to beat Gary Anderson and after trailing 7-3 the Dutchman pulled it back to 9-9 before missing two match darts, the Flying Scotsman wrapped up victory with a 140 checkout.

All three players finish on four points in Group A with Van Gerwen topping it with a leg difference of 10, Anderson finished second on plus six with Gurney finishing third four legs adrift of the Scotsman.

The tournament had started positively for Superchin with a 10-8 win on Saturday afternoon over Anderson.

In a nip and tuck game Gurney took out a 158 checkout to go into a 4-2 lead.

With the scores tied at 8-8 the world No5 hit the bull to go within a leg of the match and held his nerve in the 18th leg to close it out.

Gurney was back on the Brighton stage on Saturday night to face MVG and got off to the worst possible start losing the first five legs.

However the Derry thrower regained his composure and started to chip away at the Dutchman’s lead wining four of the next five legs to trail by one at the interval.

The players shared the next six legs and Gurney missed darts to make it 8-9 and Van Gerwen punished to close the match out 10-7.

Chisnall had only won five legs in his opening two matches and Gurney needed a big win to boost his leg difference.

‘Superchin’ raced into a 2-0 lead and missed darts to win the third leg, ‘Chizzy’ won three on the spin but Gurney established a 7-4 lead.

Again Chisnall fought back winning the next two legs, Gurney took command going 9-7 up and won the match in the next leg with a bull finish but ultimately it wasn’t enough to reach the last four despite an impressive 96 average and 43 per cent on the doubles.

Taking to Twitter after his exit Gurney simply stated that luck wasn’t on his side as he wished Van Gerwen and Anderson all the best with the rest of the tournament.

“Sometimes the luck is with you sometimes it ain’t [sic] well done Gary and Michael all the best to the semi-finalists,” he said.

Van Gerwen’s tournament, however, came to an end at the hands of Peter Wright who finished magnificently with three bullseye finishes for a second consecutive win over the Dutchman. Wright moves through to face Gary Anderson in an all Scottish Champions League final.

Gurney begins the defence of his World Grand Prix title in Dublin on 30th September against John Henderson who he beat in the semi-final last year although the Highlander gained revenge by knocking Superchin out of the World Championship at the Ally Pally.