Gary Anderson claimed the 30th ranking title of this career by beating surprise finalist Adam Lipscombe to win the Players Championship Seven at Hildesheim.

The 54-year-old Scottish two-time world champion defeated the Englishman 8-3 in Germany to end an eight-month wait for more silverware.

Anderson told pdc.tv: “The last few months have been hard for me. I’ve been struggling since December, so it’s nice to win one.”

The Scot had romped through the early rounds but required a final-leg decider to edge Krzysztof Ratajski in the last eight before a solid semi-final win over Mike de Decker.

Lipscombe’s loss denied him a fairytale finish in what was only his eighth tournament since securing his tour card at the start of the year.

He beat William O’Connor 6-4 in the last eight before claiming a superb 7-4 win over Dirk van Duijvenbode in the semi-finals.

O’Connor and Van Duijvenbode were two of three players to land nine-dart finishes in the earlier rounds in Monday, along with Ryan Searle in the opening leg of his match against Joshua Richardson.