Jonny Clayton secured his first ranking title of the year by defeating Luke Humphries 8-4 in the Swiss Darts Trophy final. The Welshman, ranked world number five, produced a clinical display to see off the world number two and book his place in November's Grand Slam of Darts.
Clayton's path to the final began with a 6-4 victory over Rob Cross in the last-16, followed by a 6-2 win against Karel Sedlacek at the start of the evening session. He then dispatched world number three Gian van Veen 7-4 in the semi-finals to reach the showpiece in Basel.
Humphries, fresh from his recent success at the World Grand Prix, had progressed with wins over Krzysztof Ratajski (6-0), Cristo Reyes (6-3) and Mensur Suljovic (7-4). However, Clayton had other ideas and claimed the Euro Tour event with a decisive run of four successive legs from 4-4.
The players had almost identical averages – 101.75 for Humphries and 101.68 for Clayton – but it was the latter's finishing that proved decisive. Clayton hit six 180s compared to four from his rival, and boasted a checkout success of 61.54% compared to just 22.22% from Humphries.
