Glen Durrant took his tally of titles in his first year on the PDC circuit to two with victory in Players Championship 15 in Barnsley on Saturday.

The reigning BDO world champion followed up his success in Players Championship 4 in February by beating Lithuania’s Darius Labanauskas 8-1 in the final.

In the semi-finals, Durrant produced an eye-catching result as he defeated current PDC world champion Michael van Gerwen 7-2, in what was the first competitive meeting between the two reigning world champions.

Durrant, who on Friday came through both UK Qualifiers for the next two European Tour events, has all but secured his place at the World Matchplay, while the £10,000 pocketed for Saturday’s win pushes the 48-year-old up to 68th on the PDC Order of Merit.

Make that 2 titles. A superb day for the BDO world champion @Duzza180 as he doubles his PDC trophy haul and beats the WN1 Michael van Gerwen 7-2 on the way. The only surprise really was that Glen did it on a Saturday instead of a Sunday! https://t.co/GMDi4OWYOx — Lal Moss (@lalmoss20) May 18, 2019

“It feels absolutely fantastic, I can’t put it into words how happy I am right now,” Durrant said.

“Last weekend on the Euro Tour was really difficult for me but this weekend has been perfect. I had a fabulous week in practice and I knew I was playing well.

“I was determined to enjoy today but to win another title is pretty special. I joined the PDC for moments like this.

“Before I played Michael (van Gerwen) I asked if I could have his shirt which I immediately regretted as it showed weakness, but he didn’t play his best game and I was able to capitalise.

“I’ve totally exceeded the initial targets I set myself at the start of the year and soon my goals will be changing but I’m not putting too much pressure on myself at the moment.”

Ian White moves back into the Top 10, ahead of Simon Whitlock, as Glen Durrant's second title of his debut year moves within £11,500 of the Top 64. pic.twitter.com/4CYsMM9oYs — Burton DeWitt (@bsd987) May 18, 2019

Durrant’s route to PDC title number two began with 6-0 whitewash wins against Matthew Edgar and Simon Stevenson, before 6-4 victories over Kyle Anderson and Danny Noppert, the latter a repeat of the 2017 Lakeside final, took him into the quarter-finals.

Another 6-4 win, this time against PDC World Championship runner-up Michael Smith, set up an intriguing clash with world number one van Gerwen, which Durrant won convincingly as well as the final against Labanauskas to claim the title.

Labanauskas made history by becoming the first player from Lithuania to reach a PDC ranking final. The soon to be World Cup debutant, who was ranked 91st before play, and is now up to 83rd, claimed wins over Gabriel Clemens, Bradley Brooks, Cristo Reyes, Steve Beaton, Ryan Meikle and Ron Meulenkamp to advance to the decider.

Watch the Players Championship 15 final below

Players Championship 15

Last 16

Michael van Gerwen 6-3 Peter Hudson

Chris Dobey 6-3 Vincent van der Meer

Michael Smith 6-5 Justin Pipe

Glen Durrant 6-4 Danny Noppert

Ian White 6-3 Krzysztof Ratajski

Ron Meulenkamp 6-3 David Pallett

Darius Labanauskas 6-5 Steve Beaton

Ryan Meikle 6-3 Nathan Rafferty

Quarter-Finals

Michael van Gerwen 6-5 Chris Dobey

Glen Durrant 6-4 Michael Smith

Ron Meulenkamp 6-5 Ian White

Darius Labanauskas 6-2 Ryan Meikle

Semi-Finals

Glen Durrant 7-2 Michael van Gerwen

Darius Labanauskas 7-4 Ron Meulenkamp

Final

Darius Labanauskas 8-1 Glen Durrant

Listen to Episode 104 of the Weekly Dartscast podcast with special guests Steve Beaton and Stuart Pyke via the player below

Picture: Lawrence Lustig/PDC