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Michael van Gerwen made it third time lucky as he won Group Five of Championship League Darts on Wednesday, after falling at the final hurdle on two previous occasions.

The sensational Dutch darter saved his best performance of the day for a high quality decider, where he defeated Peter Wright 6-4.

“It’s been a very hard few days, especially in the final today,” said van Gerwen, who had it a nine-darter in his final defeat to Terry Jenkins 24 hours earlier.

“Both me and Peter were at the top of our game, and it was an amazing game.

“I’d lost twice in the final 6-5, so I’m very glad I won today. Peter is in great form and is doing well all the time, but I couldn’t have done much better in the final few legs and I did it at the right time.

“It’s been an amazing five days for me, I’ve learned a lot and it was very hard to get through, but I finally made it.”

van Gerwen began his fifth day of action at Crondon Park with a 6-4 victory over Mervyn King before claiming further wins against Mark Webster and Paul Nicholson.

He made it four out of four when he saw off Kim Huybrechts after lunch, but lost 6-5 to Gary Anderson and 6-4 to Wright.

The world number two returned to winning ways when he saw off Ronnie Baxter in his final match of the league stage.

van Gerwen finished second in the group behind Wright, going on to defeat King in the semi-final before overcoming the league winner in a fantastic final, where both players averaged over 110.

van Gerwen will return to compete in the Winners Group next Thursday.

By Chris Murphy