Gerwyn Price makes no bones about motivation with honest answer on live TV

Gerwyn Price made no bones about money keeping him focused amid the continued fallout from his feud with Daryl Gurney.

‘The Iceman’ stormed into the last-eight of the World Matchplay on his first return to the Blackpool stage since his bust-up on Monday.

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Price was involved in a feisty first-round match at Winter Gardens with Gurney that boiled over backstage.

However, the Welshman showed no signs of any distractions as he instantly slotted back into the groove against Chris Dobey.

The 40-year-old averaged 108.73 and converted 73 per cent of his attempts at double to cap off a tournament-best performance.

Price smashed the Geordie 11-3 on Wednesday evening and was delighted by the backing shown from the Blackpool crowd.

Speaking to talkSPORT post-match, he said: “I’m a tough player to beat, my scoring is usually there, but you know, I slip up sometimes on doubles and keep people in matches, but as you’ve seen today, that didn’t happen.”

Asked with how he’s coping with being a fan favourite now, Price added: “I love it.

“Yeah, it was fantastic and it shows that I had a lot of support over social media and definitely today as well, which has been really nice.”

Price’s latest success maintains his recent run of strong form, having lost just once from his last 14 matches across the Players Championship 21, European Tour 9, and now, the World Matchplay.

In a separate interview with Sky Sports on the oche, when asked where his motivation lies, he smiled and added: “Just the money!

“And the ranking points, because I dropped down quite a bit.

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“And yeah, just getting some money on my rankings more than anything.

“It’s one of the trophies I haven’t won, which I really want to win.

“I lost in a final of this, I think 2022. So yeah, it’s a tournament I really want to win.”

Price powered past sixth seed Dobey in just 24 minutes of play to set up a showdown with Josh Rock in the quarter-finals.

Price, who also landed eight 180s, insisted he isn’t interested in whomever he comes up against next.

“No, no, honestly, it doesn’t matter,” the 2021 world champion continued. “I go up every single time, play the board. I know it’s easy to say that, but I do. I go up, I play the board.

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“If my game’s good enough, I’ll win. If it’s not, I’ll go home.

“Today, it was more than good enough. I put Chris under a lot of pressure, but I felt like I was good.”

The World Matchplay, which serves as one-third of the PDC’s Triple Crown, has a whopping £225,000 prize pot for the winner.

Price has already banked £35k for reaching the last-eight, with Michael van Gerwen taking home £22,500 after defeat to Rock.

Luke Humphries won the Phil Taylor Trophy for the first time last year, beating Dutchman Van Gerwen 18–15 in the final.

‘Cool Hand’ suffered a shock defeat in the opening round this year, losing 10-8 to world youth champion Gian van Veen.

His namesake, Luke Littler, meanwhile, survived a scare before fighting back to beat Jermaine Wattimena 13-11 in Blackpool.

World champion Littler set up a meeting with former UK Open champion Andrew Gilding, who downed Dirk van Duijvenbode.