With Raymond van Barneveld's embarrassingly dramatic retirement/unretirement from professional darts last week, the Premier League now moves on for the race to the O2 next month. In a new change to the format, all matches will now be the classic PLD length of best of 14 legs (so first to 8). The first evening of the playoff phase sees Northern Ireland's #1 return home to Belfast after a groundbreaking week in his career.
Opening the night are two of the PL's oddballs in everyone's faovurite unorthodox Serbo-Austrian Mensur Suljovic and Aldershot's bipolar mentalist James Wade. The Gentle thrashed the Machine 7-3 in their first meeting this season back in Nottingham, but with Wadey having hit a 9 darter on the Euro Tour at the weekend, he might just be able to get revenge if he uses that belief against Mensur.
Two former PL & Worlds finalists then meet in rising star Michael Smith and plummeting past-it Peter Wright. Bully Boy binned a 4-1 lead when these two met in Glasgow back in February, but with Snakebite having not won in the PL in a month (and that was against Barney) and having fallen out of the world's top 4, this is a prime moment for Smith to challenge for the play-offs.
The hometown hero then graces the stage as the new world #3 Daryl Gurney plays current world #2 Rob Cross. Superchin finally clinched a European Tour title on Sunday, a far cry from his confidence when he was whacked 7-1 by Voltage in Exeter at the end of February. 7 legs for Cross will take him back to the PLD summit.
Closing the night is the latest instalment of the Gerwe/yn derby with Michael van looking to making it 16-0 over Price. The Iceman failed to take advantage of a rubbish MVG on week 6, and any big win for the Dutchman will keep him at the top of the table. Can the rugger roidlet FINALLY get one over the reigning champion?
Coverage starts at 7:00pm BST on Sky Sports Action.
>Tonight's fixtures (7:00pm start, all matches best of 14 legs) Mensur "DIE MEISTER, DIE BESTEN" Suljovic v James "The Meds Are Back In Town" Wade Michael "Snackpot 2.0" Smith v Snakeshite Rob "BAuLDtism" Cross v Daryl "Sweet C4-line" Gurney Barney v MvGOAuTism v Gerwyn "Gurning" Price
So as mentioned in the OP, the European Tour continued this past weekend with the German Darts Championship from Hildesheim.
Although there was no concrete PL representation on the opening day, three contenders did incredibly well, with Luke Humphries battering Leeds' Martin Atkins 6-2 (he of massaged by Trina Gulliver at Lakeside fame), Dimitri Van den Bergh turning 2-4 into 6-4 against Steve Beaton and Nathan Aspinall averaging 104.54 in a 6-1 demolition job of Home Nation Qualifier Mike Holz. The biggest story though was to come on day 2.
That story involved the reigning champion Michael van Gerwen, who faced that sweaty fat pink mess of Keegan Brown. Despite averaging 108.10 and finishing at 50%, he was no match for the Needle who averaged 104.12 but crucially did not miss a single dart at double from 6 attempts, knocking out the #1 seed. Incredibly this was one of just 3 seeds to go, as rapid Ricky Evans finished at 60% to best a poor Mensur Suljovic while Mervyn King had dim Dave Chisnall's doubling disaster of a 19% finishing rate to thank for his loss.
Sunday went even further with the stories. Adrian Lewis's post-Deller age looked to be paying dividends as he smacked Joe Cullen silly with a near 110 average, but the real drama of the afternoon last 16 came in the match between James Wade and lil' Darren Webster. The second leg of the game saw another Euro Tour first as the Machine hit 180-180-T20T19D12 for his first maiden ET 9er and the first time consecutive events had 9s, but it was all in vain as his 106 average lost in a deciding leg to the midget's 102. The evening saw Daryl Gurney get past Stephen Bunting and Jackpot in close games for his first ET final in over 3 years, while Rapid survived match darts against Demolition Man to then hump Brown for his second ET final in just over 6 months. Alas, after going 3-0 down Ricky was never winning the final and despite winning 5 of 6 from 5-1 behind, faded and gave Superchin his first ever Euro title.
anyone got a stream please? goldenarrows is just dying after 10 seconds everytime i refresh andd the only i can find on twitch is in bulgarian oir something
Has Clownman dressed up colourless because of Eric?
Sebastian Price
#respect
Cameron Thomas
>11
Colton Howard
>still wins the leg
Jayden Nelson
>that D20 attempt What the fuck was that?
Owen Morales
These first two matches have been shite.
Angel Rodriguez
welcome to lakeside.webm
Camden Foster
Chadby will do the double this weekend
Robert Collins
No chance.
Josiah Anderson
Will be watching, but this year seems competative as fuck. Jamie Hughes has been regularly averaging over a ton and finds himself on the losing end. I dont question his eagerness and talent but Top 32 and the winter gardens might not happen this year imo
Ian Gomez
>Blubby
Nathaniel Sanders
>Le wobbly headed, muh wedding man
Jace Rogers
>smiff
Angel Thompson
Smith is tilted once again.
Has zero composure.
Samuel Reyes
You now realise Peter Wright has no snek on head tonight.
