Glen Durrant is proving the doubters wrong as his dream start to life in the PDC continues with a first title

Sunday is often referred to as the day of rest. For Glen Durrant, it has been anything but so far in 2019.

A third consecutive BDO World Championship win was completed on Sunday, January 13, before just seven days later he clinched his tour card onto the PDC circuit in a dramatic final day at UK Qualifying School.

Fast forward three weeks, and it was again on a Sunday that Durrant was making the headlines, with a run to the final of Players Championship 2, his second-ever tournament as a PDC tour card holder.

And today, again on a Sunday, the former BDO world number one went one step better. Winning Players Championship 4, his first tournament win since switching over to the PDC.

Aside from maybe Gerwyn Price, no other player has been spoken more about than Durrant in the last few months.

The annual talk of ‘will he or won’t he’ take the plunge and give the PDC a go were quickly quashed before Lakeside, as Durrant revealed he would be entering Q-School.

After winning Lakeside for a third straight year, Durrant felt he had achieved all there was to achieve in the BDO, and there was one final chapter left to fulfill in his darting journey: the PDC.

If there is one thing you take away from listening to Durrant in his interviews, it is that he always gives you complete honesty. Before heading to Q-School, just days removed from that third Lakeside win, he said there was no guarantee he would win a tour card.

And he very nearly didn’t. Matthew Dennant had match darts to knock out the BDO world champion on the final day of Q-School, an outcome which would have left Durrant without a coveted golden ticket to play on the PDC main circuit.

It was perhaps because Durrant did not breeze through Q-School, as a lot of people expected him to, and his first-round exit in Players Championship 1, despite averaging almost 99, that there were still some doubters.

“He should have stuck with the BDO.” “He won’t be able to cut it in the PDC.” Just a few examples of opinions from darts fans floating around on social media that evening after his PDC debut ended in an early exit.

Even coming back the next day and reaching the final, while quietening some of the doubters, did not deter all of them. A defeat to Daryl Gurney, while playing as a Premier League contender, in Glasgow on Thursday night, saw the knives sharpen once again.

It was a 7-3 defeat which looked worse on paper, but Durrant averaged just under the 100-mark, on his Premier League debut, and against a Gurney who barely missed a dart on the outer ring of the board.

Durrant posted another high average, 97 this time, in losing to Luke Woodhouse in round one at Players Championship 3 on Saturday. But back came round Sunday, and another impressive performance.

Averages of 100, 103, 103, 99 and 97 took him into the semi-finals, where Durrant raised his game again. A whopping 109 average to beat Gerwyn Price, and he finished off the day with a tournament average of 101, as he saw off Dimitri van den Bergh to win his first PDC title.

Week by week, the number of people doubting whether the BDO world champion can ‘cut it in the PDC’ is diminishing. His ranking, now up to 74, may not be up there yet, but the PDC have a new contender to mix it with the elite, and his name is Glen Durrant.


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