BURNHAM-ON-SEA'S Gary Anderson admitted that he "couldn’t get going" as he was beaten 7-3 by Gerwyn Price in the final of the PDC World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace on Sunday night.

After two years of injuries and indifferent form, Anderson had hit a hot streak of form in dispatching Dirk van Duijvenbode 5-1 in the quarter-finals, then Dave Chisnall (who himself had whitewashed Michael van Gerwen 5-0 in the quarters) 6-3 in the semi-finals of the competition.

But his hopes of adding a third world title were dashed by ex-professional rugby player Price, who won the title for the first time and became darts' new world number one in the process.

This was the first time the pair had met in a major final since the controversy of the 2018 Grand Slam of Darts, where Anderson took exception to what he saw as slow play and over-the-top celebrations by his opponent.

The animosity has died down since then, and Anderson was gracious in defeat at Ally Pally - admitting that the better player had won Sunday night's encounter.

Anderson had fought back from losing the first set to level, only for the Welshman to scorch into a 5-1 lead - sealing the sixth set with with a 136.6 average, the highest in championship history.

The players then exchanged sets before Price missed nine match darts in the third leg of the ninth, and Anderson took advantage of those mistakes to pull it back to 6-3.

The nerves really showed in the 10th set, as Price missed two more match darts, but Anderson passed up opportunities himself, allowing Price to hit double five to become world champion and collect the winner's cheque of £500,000.

Afterwards Anderson said: "Tonight I just could not get the darts up to that treble 20, and my doubles were atrocious.

"That's what happens when you do that - you get thumped.

"But what I've done the last few weeks has been a big bonus for me."