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Jeffrey de Zwaan defeat leaves Premier League Darts contenders winless in nine matches

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Jeffrey de Zwaan started well but faded (Picture: Getty Images)

Jeffrey de Zwaan became the ninth and final contender to have a crack at a Premier League player on Thursday night, and he became the ninth to walk away without a win.

The Black Cobra started brilliantly in his clash with Rob Cross, taking a 2-0 and 3-1 lead, but couldnt keep up his sparkling level of performance, slumping to a 7-4 defeat.

The young Dutchman was averaging around 110 early on and checked out a massive 151 to take the second leg, but Cross was not rattled by either the arrows or the noisy Rotterdam crowd.

The Englishman finished with a lower average and checkout ratio than his younger opponent, but he hit the right shots at the right time to pick up his sixth win from nine matches.

UNIBET PREMIER LEAGUE DARTS 2019 MOTORPOINT ARENA, NOTTINGHAM PIC LAWRENCE LUSTIG ROB CROSS V RAYMOND VAN BARNEVELD ROB CROSS IN ACTION — Rob Cross did well to battle the crowd in Rotterdam (Picture: PDC/Lawrence Lustig)

Jeffrey came out the gates very strong, hes an incredible talent and he will go far, Cross said after the victory.

Fair play to the Dutch crowd, they did everything they could and he was a credit to himself as well.

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Nine contenders were thrown into the Premier League this season to replace the injured Gary Anderson.

Each had one match to impress, and while most did, none managed to claim a victory against the more established players.

Four managed to pick up a draw, including on Wednesday night when Dimitri van den Bergh held James Wade to a 6-6 stalemate.

The new initiative has produced memorable moments, including John Hendersons draw with Michael van Gerwen in Aberdeen and Chris Dobeys amazing entrance in Newcastle, but with no wins from nine, we will wait and see if the PDC bring it back next year.

PDC Chief Executive Matt Porter tweeted: So thats the end of our contenders….what was your highlight? Invaluable experience for all nine and some fantastic moments. Hope we managed to convince those of you that didnt like the idea that it was worth a go!