Ryan Searle has claimed his first title of the year on the PDC ProTour, defeating Alan Soutar 8-3 in the final of the seventh Players Championship of the season. The 38-year-old Englishman extended an impressive streak, having now won at least one ProTour tournament for seven consecutive years. What makes this achievement particularly striking is Searle's casual admission about his preparation: "I've literally been practicing 10 minutes a day. So to turn up today and win is probably not a good thing because it's not going to kick me up the backside to do any more practice."
Throughout the event, Searle displayed remarkable consistency, dispatching opponents with ease and posting his best statistical average in his match against Raymond van Barneveld, despite feeling it was his least fluent performance. In the final, Soutar played decently but missed key doubles that could have made the match "way, way closer." Searle noted that February and March are typically his strong periods, saying, "February/March time is usually my time of the year. So yeah, if we can try and pick up another one or maybe two to sort of break new ground, we'll be trying to do that."
Despite recent successes—including a run to the final at the Players Championship Finals and a semi-final at the World Championship—Searle admits motivation has been low since the Worlds. His unconventional preparation included playing exhibitions against Gary Anderson and alongside Ross Smith shortly before the ProTour event, which served as a warm-up. However, at home, he prefers gaming: "I'm more interested in playing Call of Duty, and that's the problem."
Searle's next goal is to win a PDC European Tour event, aiming to play "all the Euro Tours" this season. He humorously referenced travel mate Gary Anderson, who often leaves him to travel alone. Reflecting on recent challenges, Searle recalled being knocked out of a European Tour event after Danny Noppert hit a 12-darter at 5-5 against him. Whether he'll play again immediately remains uncertain—"We'll see what the boss says in a minute!"—but his blend of natural talent and relaxed mindset continues to make him a dangerous competitor.
