Adrian Lewis defeats Gerwyn Price at World Matchplay and continues war of words

Wednesday 20 July 2016 15:44, UK

Adrian Lewis continued his war of words with Gerwyn Price after defeating the Welshman in the last-16 of the World Matchplay.

An ongoing feud between the players had dominated the build-up to their last-16 match, but Lewis inflicted an 11-5 defeat on Price before launching another verbal attack in the post-match interview.

Lewis, who was beaten by Price in last year's tournament, exchanged heated words with Price on social media in recent days and gave a parting shot after winning the grudge match.

"The reflection was, I was rubbish, and that just shows why he's nobody, simple as that," Lewis told Sky Sports.

"He turned up there, bottled it, simple as that. Between greatness and not so great, that just showed tonight."

Earlier in the night, defending champion Michael van Gerwen had maintained his dominant form with a one-sided 11-3 win over Kyle Anderson to reach the quarter-finals in Blackpool.

Van Gerwen will next face Dave Chisnall, who inflicted an 11-2 thrashing on Robert Thornton, while Peter Wright claimed an 11-6 win over Ian White to set up a match with Lewis.

However, all eyes were on Lewis and Price in the closing match of the night and the pair exchanged a frosty hand shake on stage.

There would be passionate celebrations from each player as they exchanged the early legs and Price gave a triumphant fist pump to the crowd after trimming Lewis' lead to 3-2 at the interval.

But the squabbling pair seemed drained by the outpouring of emotion when the action restarted and the match lost its competitive edge, with Lewis tamely taking legs from the subdued Price.

With both men's scoring averages languishing in the 80s, Lewis would end the scrappy contest on double 16 and offered a brief handshake and a hug to Price, although he would reignite their rivalry minutes later.

In stark contrast, Van Gerwen displayed icy composure as he raced into a 5-0 lead against Anderson, just days after his 10-0 demolition of Jamie Caven.

The Australian needed to produce a stunning 160 to stop Van Gerwen from extending this perfect run, but he would claim just two more legs as 'Mighty Mike' powered to victory.