Six is a highly significant number in Premier League Darts tonight. A sextet of stars remain in contention, and the Steel City of Sheffield could see a certain 6-season streak of league phase wins ended.
Beginning the night though is a repeat of the quite remarkable World Series of Darts Final final back in October with the already-eliminated Michael Smith against double TV title winner in 2018 James Wade. Bully Boy's PLD campaign was ended in a humiliating 8-1 humbling last week, whereas the Machine took advantage of a meltdown from a certain incorrectly nicknamed hothead to almost guarantee his first appearance at finals night since 2013.
Speaking of 2013, Rob Cross could become the first new table topper since that year if he beats everyone's favourite unorthodox Serbo-Austrian Mensur Suljovic and the current PL champion loses. Voltage was the provider of the aforementioned 8-1 thrashing of Smith, whereas the Gentle almost fucked up a 5-1 lead to eventually prevail 8-6. Cross will need a big win regardless to overturn the deficit in leg difference he has on the World #1.
Two supersulks then collide in a massive game between big chinned Ulsterman Daryl Gurney and Wales's raging rugger roidlet Gerwyn Price that could spell the end for the latter. The Iceman never looked comfortable even from the walk-on last week, to the point he failed to shake hands with his opponent at the end. Superchin on the other hand produced a shock victory over a lacklustre opponent sharing names with tonight's opposition, and a repeat will almost surely end the hopes of the Grand Slam champion.
It was of course Michael van Gerwen who suffered that stunning loss in Manchester, but tonight's opposition is far less threatening in midlife crisis clown Peter Wright, Snakebite's constant equipment changes have seen him lose all consistency and it was no surprise to see him eliminated last week as a result.
Coverage starts at 7:00pm BST on Sky Sports Action.
>Tonight's fixtures (7:00pm start, all matches best of 14 legs) Michael "Snackpot 2.0" Smith v James "The Meds Are Back In Town" Wade Mensur "DIE MEISTER, DIE BESTEN" Suljovic v Rob "BAuLDtism" Cross Daryl "Sweet C4-line" Gurney v v Gerwyn "Gurning" Price MvGOAuTism v Snakeshite
Last weekend saw yet more European Tour action, this time from Premstätten in Austria for the Austrian Darts Open.
Six competitors from this year's Premier League were involved on the opening day and all won. Arguably the most dramatic victory was for Chris Dobey, who survived NINE match darts from Andrew Gilding to win from 5-3 behind. Steve Lennon, Jeffrey de Zwaan and Raymond van Barneveld all had simple 6-1 wins over Jamie Bain, Mark Wilson and local qualifier Benjamin Fasching, Nathan Aspinall smashed Kim Huybrechts 6-2 and big John Henderson dumped out a terrible Ross Smith 6-4.
The first PL related upset on the Saturday was that of Michael Smith, who was completely outplayed by the evergreen sex machine Steve Beaton and lost 6-4. Reigning champion Jonny Clayton's poor form continued with a surprise 6-2 loss to Poland's Tytus Kanik, while last year's finalist Gerwyn Price beat Hendo 6-3 in a statistical oddity where both men averaged exactly the same of 91.67. JdZ missed 3 to beat Rob Cross and Peter Wright also beat Chris Dobey 6-5. Michael van Gerwen's quest for Euro Tour title #32 began with a whitewash of a dreadful Lennon, James Wade disposed of Mervyn King and the locals' hero Mensur Suljovic beat Barney 6-4.
It looked ominous for the rest of the field as MVG whacked a sub-80 Stephen Bunting 6-1 on Sunday afternoon, but he was almost made to pay by Snakebite in that night's quarter-finals as the Dutchman averaged sub-90 and lost a 5-3 lead yet Wright unsurprisingly choked in the decider. Superchin was his opposition in the semis abd was thumped 7-3 with back-to-back 170 and 164 finishes along the way. For the second week in succession Michael's final opponent was Stoke #1 Ian White, who overpowered the Machine in the semis. Unlike last week Diamond was on it from the off, with a 138 to go 3-1 up. He then lost 3 legs in a row but battled back incredibly well to take it to a decider, which he lost to a 13 darter for MVG's 32nd ET title and this jacket.
He's redpilled. People are fags not getting pissed off with his celebrating. He's obviously shaken and affected by the bullying received.
It's making him act out too. Last week against wade he was getting pissed of for some silly reasons. I think wade was taking too long to get his darts.
Chase Clark
I think it was because Wade is a cunt.
Nolan Ward
THE MEDS ARE BACK IN TOWN
Kayden Nguyen
Fuck me the premier league drags on >still 3 more weeks
Cameron Sanders
Premier League is fucking shit, i'm only watching this trainwreck because i'm a gambling addict who stupidly bets on darts all the time.
The Euro Tour is where the propa darts are played.
Lincoln Gomez
worst bit about it
this year has been particularly shit for it
those seasons a few years back where bunting and thorn survived and were just getting assfucked every week was pretty depressing
Alexander Reed
Love Darth Maple, hate Rod Studd and Stuart Shite.
It's just a way for the PDC to claim three hours a week on Sky during the early-part-of-the-year darts quiet period. Really could do with something to freshen it up though.
Jason Roberts
Contenders definitely did something this year, regardless of the fact they all failed to win.
Jeremiah Clark
The biggest factor keeping darts fans disinterested is that the players are throwing pretty mediocre darts on stage way too often.
Too many low-90's to high-80's averages being thrown week after week for a "Premier" exhibition event.
The dynamic in the Premier League is completely different to the Euro Tour and other tournaments that actually mean something.
The players here seem disinterested and look like they are just going through the motions mean while the matches on the ET are intense with crowd being really involved and players showing passion.
Tyler Cooper
>while the matches on the ET are intense with crowd being really involved and players showing passion. When you can watch them, that is.
Tyler Wright
What do you mean? Are you implying that the PDC.tv is not working approx. 80-90% of the time?
Robert Bell
it has been awful recently
Hudson Price
>roidlet
Cooper Bell
>loves D20 >hates D16/D8 >throws at the bull instead of D14 with 82 left >can't finish the D16 he left stupidly
MVG now about to throw paint around backstage due to autism rage
Nicholas Cooper
MVGWinsLOL
Colton Ramirez
So it ends with both baldies qualifying, some massive needle between the two twats left in contention and a precarious battle between four players for the last two spots.
See you next week for the last league phase round of this year's Premier League.
