Gerwyn Price has seized control of second spot in the Premier League by winning the Week Eight edition in Newcastle.
While the Welshman had suffered four first-match defeats in seven weeks, he had two weekly triumphs to his name, including last week in Nottingham.
The former world champion made it successive victories on Thursday as he defeated Jonny Clayton, Chris Dobey and Michael van Gerwen.
Price dropped just five legs in dispatching the first two players, edging out home favourite Dobey by a 6-4 scoreline despite averaging just 86.98.
Remarkably, Price put almost 28 points on his average to thrash Van Gerwen, prevailing 6-1 with an average of 114.96.
Price hit five 180s and posted a 66% checkout ratio as he surged past the league frontrunner, only being denied a whitewash win in the sixth leg.
Although Price remains seven points behind Van Gerwen, he is eight points clear of fifth-placed Dobey at the midway point of the competition.
With Dobey having overcome a deficit to defeat Michael Smith in his opening fixture of the evening, Nathan Aspinall now sits third having defeated Dimitri van den Bergh.
Peter Wright remains cut adrift at the bottom of the table after losing 6-5 to Van Gerwen, the Dutchman taking out a 150 checkout to win the deciding leg.
