Brilliant Bunting bounces back to claim 5th triumph of 2025

Stephen Bunting continued his impressive run of form on Tuesday to claim a fifth title of the year, after an 8-6 victory over Jonny Clayton in the final of Players Championship 25, as the PDC Pro Tour double header concluded at the Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes, UK.

Bunting, who lost out in the decider of Monday’s PC24 to Jeffrey De Graaf, went a step further 24 hours later. The Merseyside man reached the final by recording victories against Michele Turetta, Mario Vandenbogaerde, Ritchie Edhouse, Cor Dekker, Wessel Nijman and William O’Connor, to set up a clash with Clayton.

The final began with Clayton taking the opener in 16 darts, before Bunting charged in front by rattling off five successive legs in 17,14,16,14 and 20 darts respectively to move 5-1 ahead in a race to eight. Clayton then moved within one of ‘The Bullet’ as he won three successive legs in a total of 44 darts to make it 5-4.

There was a run of five straight holds of throw between the pair, ending with Bunting sealing the victory in Leg 14 with a 14 darter to pick up a second Players Championship victory of the year and a fifth title of 2025.

IS BUNTING’S THE BEST WALK ON? See for yourself here

Clayton’s run to the final saw ‘The Ferret’ record victories on the day against Tom Bissell, Stephen Burton, Krzysztof Ratajski, Robert Grundy, Alan Soutar and Martin Schindler, before being denied by Bunting.

Elsewhere, there were Quarter Final runs for World Matchplay Quarter Finalist Gian Van Veen and Czech’s Karel Sedlacek reaching the Last Eight for the second consecutive day, whilst the likes of James Wade, Michael Smith and Peter Wright were amongst the high profile first round casualties. The day also saw a nine-dart finish hit by Dutchman Dirk Van Duijvenbode during his third-round defeat against Daryl Gurney.

STEPHEN BUNTING CAREER STATS: Check out full profile on dartsdatabase

The PDC Pro Tour returns on 9-10th September at Halle 39 Hildesheim with Players Championship 26-27 taking place, with the 128 players competing for £125,000 in prize money each day. Play will be broadcasted across four streaming boards on PDC.TV and various bookmaker websites worldwide, with all live scores and results on tv.dartconnect.com.

Players Championship 25Last 16

Stephen Bunting 6-2 Cor Dekker

Wessel Nijman 6-2 Rob Cross

William O’Connor 6-2 Keane Barry

Karel Sedlacek 6-5 David Davies

Martin Schindler 6-5 Justin Hood

Gian Van Veen 6-3 Cameron Menzies

Alan Soutar 6-4 Daryl Gurney

Jonny Clayton 6-4 Robert Grundy

Quarter Finals

Stephen Bunting 6-1 Wessel Nijman

William O’Connor 6-3 Karel Sedlacek

Martin Schindler 6-3 Gian Van Veen

Jonny Clayton 6-1 Alan Soutar

Semi Finals

Stephen Bunting 7-6 William O’Connor

Jonny Clayton 7-6 Martin Schindler

Final

Stephen Bunting 8-6 Jonny Clayton

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