BOLTON darts star Lisa Ashton has won her first match as a fully-fledged member of the PDC Pro Tour.

The Lancashire Rose last month made history by becoming the first woman to win a PDC tour card and her first two outings of the season came at the opening Players Championship events in Barnsley.

On Saturday, Ashton was beaten 6-2 by Ireland's Brendan Dolan in the first round of the 128-player tournament.

Dolan's run did not stop there as he knocked out world number one Michael van Gerwen on his way to the semi-finals – where the 46-year-old was beaten by the day's surprise performer in Canada's Jeff Smith.

Ashton, a four-time BDO Women’s World champion, fared better in the second event 24 hours later, winning her game in the opening stage 6-3 against Germany's Christian Bunse as she bounced back from her debut defeat.

Ashton was unable to back it up against Darius Labanauskas later in the day though, going down by a 6-2 scoreline against the Lithuanian.

Saturday’s event saw Gary Anderson win the first ranking title of the 2020 season with an 8-4 win over Smith in the final.

The two-time world champion beat five of the world's top 15 – Simon Whitlock, Gerwyn Price, Rob Cross, Joe Cullen and Adrian Lewis – on his way to the title.

On Sunday, Nathan Aspinall overcame world champion Peter Wright in a remarkable quarter-final clash on his way to victory.

Aspinall posted a 117.5 average in beating Wright 6-4, as well as hitting a nine-dart finish – the fifth of the weekend at the Metrodome.

The pair's combined match average of 115.59 was the highest recorded in PDC history.

Aspinall went on to thump Gabriel Clemens 7-0 in the semi-finals before storming to an 8-3 victory over world number three Gerwyn Price in the final.

"I've never thrown darts like that, the last two hours of play I just felt like I wasn't going to miss," said a delighted Aspinall.

"To throw such a big average against the World Champions makes it even more special.

"This weekend I've felt brilliant and I've beaten some quality players, I'm very happy to win my second ProTour title.

"I'm still on cloud nine to be in the Premier League. I'm still new to this game, I'm still learning.

"I know what I can do and I want to show it more consistently."

The 2020 PDC ProTour continues with Players Championship Events 3 and 4 in Wigan this Saturday and Sunday.

There are 30 Players Championship events in total with the top players in the order of merit reaching the finals at Butlin's Minehead in November.