He might seemingly keep opening the Premier League of Darts every week, but that winning formula is working just right for Suffolk’s Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright as he romped to another victory on the big stage in Nottingham against Simon Whitlock last night.
Maintaining his excellent debut campaign in the competition, Wright comfortably overcame the challenge of the struggling Aussie as he won 7-3 to preserve his position at the top of the league.
We are now six rounds into the competition, and Snakebite has yet to lose.
After racing into a 4-0 lead, at one stage, it looked like Wright was going to whitewash the startled Whitlock but the Australian fought back to 4-2.
Snakebite erased any chances of a comeback though as he rallied to win the next two and reassert his four-set lead.
Whitlock made Wright wait with a fantastic 126-finish, but the Mendham-based star finished with double-10 in the next to seal another excellent victory.
And the win proved to be crucial as fellow title-contenders Adrian Lewis and Michael Van Gerwen also won, with triumphs over Gary Anderson (7-5)and Wes Newton (7-1).
Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor also eased his relegation fears with a 7-5 victory over Dave Chisnall, while Raymond Van Barneveld and Robert Thornton shared the spoils.
Meanwhile, fellow Suffolk star Andrew ‘Goldfinger’ Gilding has recently signed up with sponsors UK Sports Management Ltd.
Gilding’s dramatic rise in the sport, after beating the likes of Taylor and Van Barneveld in a UK Open Qualifier recently, hasn’t gone unnoticed, and with the support of UKSM, the Bungay-based star is looking forward to doing what he does best - playing darts.
He told UKSM: “Working with UKSM will take a lot of pressure off as I will be able to focus on the games and not too much about the financial side.
“It allows me to focus on the darts, which is what I do best. My plans are to move into the top 32 over the next couple of years and perform better in the televised tournaments.”
Gilding lost to Ipswich Town fan Kevin Painter 9-4 of the Fourth Round of the UK Open in Minehead last weekend, which was televised live on ITV 4.
This was Gildling’s biggest achievement in the world darts scene so far, and he is now looking to build on his achievements.
“UKSM and I are looking forward to this coming year in developing my world ranking and playing career in respect of new sponsorship and non-playing promotional opportunities, so the future for Goldfinger is looking very bright,” added Gilding.
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