Keegan Brown has clinched his 1st PDC ranking title in 7 years after beating in form Nathan Aspinall 8-7 in the final of Players Championship 23 last night (Thursday).
Back in 2015, Brown – also known as ‘The Needle’ – defeated 2x World Champion Adrian Lewis sealing his one and only title, but last night earned a win that will see him seal World Championship and Players Championship Finals qualification as well as his Tour Card after it looked like he was potentially heading to Q-School.
It started well for the Island thrower, breaking throw in the 1st leg with a 180 and checkout of 121, as he went into a 3-1 and 4-2 lead in the match despite the fact that Aspinall missed a hatful of darts to level the scoring at 2-2.
He could’ve stretched the lead further to 6-3 had he not missed 2 darts to break the Aspinall throw, instead the 31-year-old from Stockport proved he wasn’t down and out just yet.
But Brown however kept his composure and restored a 2-leg advantage taking out double 10 to lead 6-4.
Just when he thought it was his time, ‘The Asp’ came roaring back holding throw on the next, and taking out a whopping 170 to level it at 6-6.
Aspinall led for the 1st time in the match at 7-6, meaning Brown had to hit a maximum and a double 8 checkout to take it to a decider.
In a nervy last leg, Brown stayed calm and was first to 8 with a finish of 107, checking-out at the 2nd time of asking. Brown took home the £12,000 top prize.
In his post-match interview, Brown said:
“I’m absolutely over the moon. Nathan’s a champion, he’s a fighter but I thought to myself to stick with him, you get a chance with anyone.
“I think I’ve got luck on my side. I felt confident and it’s a long time since I felt confident.
“Never give up, I can’t tell you how many times over the last two years I wanted to pack it all away. My sponsors had faith in me, I kept plodding along and here we are.”
If you read this I want to say a big well done Keegan so proud to have watched you over the years. I hope to see you take your skills to the top. I’ll be routing for you, Auntie Mandy xx
Well done keegan,some good newes for a change
nice not to see the doom and gloomers on here. well done keegan the island is proud of you.
Well done buddy, followed u for years, and actually played against you years ago on the Robin Hood pan estate. Looking forward to watching you progress and get better and better, uve paid ur dues, ur time to shine buddy