MERVYN KING won his first tournament since 2008 with 6-3 victory over Andy Hamilton in the final of Saturday's Players Championship.

The world number four ended a 15-month gap between victories to claim the £6,000 winner's cheque at the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon.

Having won both his Whyte & Mackay Premier League Darts matches so far this season, King continued his form to sweep through the 156-player field in the third Players Championship of the year.

Having edged past Steve Evans in a deciding leg in the first round, he took 6-2 wins against Andy Callaby, Vincent van der Voort and Steve Hine to reach the quarter-finals.

There, he saw off in-form Adrian Lewis 6-4 before blowing away another Premier League rival, Ronnie Baxter, 6-1 to reach the final.

In the decider, he took out 101 in the opening leg to break Hamilton's throw before the Stoke man punished two misses from King to level with a 76 finish.

King returned the favour in the third leg on double 12 before holding throw in the next to lead 3-1.

Hamilton hit a 174 in a 13-darter to win the fifth leg, which was bettered by King as he moved 4-2 up with a 12-dart finish.

Hamilton took out 76 for the second time in the game in taking leg seven, but missed the bull for a 164 in the next and two darts at double eight as King finished on double two to move a leg away from the win.

He then wrapped up victory in style, hitting a 180 to leave a 99 finish, which he took out on double 16 for the title.

Hamilton had rode his luck at times during his best run since October, as he took the £3,000 runner-up prize.

Steve Brown saw 11 darts at a double to defeat him in the last 16 go begging, while Jamie Caven missed one chance to take a 6-4 victory in the semis, as Hamilton took out 120 to force a decider and produced a 13-dart winning leg.

Baxter, who had been defeated by Phil Taylor in the Premier League on Thursday, bounced back to reach the last four, taking wins against Mark Walsh, Kevin McDine and Peter Wright on the day

The two winners of Players Championships in Gibraltar a fortnight ago, Colin Lloyd and Denis Ovens, clashed at the last 16 stage, with Lloyd taking a narrow 6-4 win, before losing out to Caven in the quarters.

Australian Simon Whitlock, the Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship runner-up in January, defeated Tony Eccles and Wes Newton in hs run to the last 16 as he begins his full-time challenge on the PDC ProTour.