The final week of regular season action in this year's Premier League Darts (which as of last night remains the only Premier League action you'll see in Leeds this year) has produced a scenario never before seen in the tournament's history. Four players are still in contention for the last two remaining play-off spots... and incredibly none of them play each other!
First up is the outside contender Gerwyn Price, who probably has the easiest opposition in midlife crisis clown Peter Wright. The Iceman kept himself in contention following THAT high-pressure draw last week, and despite getting to the weekend's Euro Tour final, Snakebite's PL performances have been truly inconsistent. A first PLD win in over 2 months for the "Scot" and the Welsh rugger roidlet is out of contention.
The other man involved in said draw was of course fellow aggressor Daryl Gurney against last year's runner-up Michael Smith. Superchin is outside the top 4 on legs won against the throw, but could end the night in 3rd place if he secures victory against Bully Boy, who will guarantee 7th place with his first win of the play-off phase.
Probably the most difficult challenge of the night goes to everyone's favourite unorthodox Serbo-Austrian Mensur Suljovic against reigning PLD champion Michael van Gerwen. Despite a shock defeat in the Euro Tour at the weekend, Mighty Mike can return to the top of the table with 7 legs against the Gentle, but you just know he'll want the win.
Ending both the night and the league phase is a tricky match for both James Wade and Rob Cross. The Machine may have already secured qualification before this point, which could mean he'll let Voltage walk all over him and become only the third player to win the league phase. A draw would not be enough for Cross to win the league if MVG has won beforehand.
Coverage starts at 7:00pm BST on Sky Sports Action.
>Tonight's fixtures (7:00pm start, all matches best of 14 legs) Gerwyn "Gurning" Price v Snakeshite (E) Daryl "Sweet C4-line" Gurney v Michael "Snackpot 2.0" Smith (E) MvGOAuTism (Q) v Mensur "DIE MEISTER, DIE BESTEN" Suljovic James "The Meds Are Back In Town" Wade v Rob "BAuLDtism" Cross (Q)
So as mentioned in the OP, it was the sixth European Tour event of 2019 with the Euro Darts Grand Prix from Sindelfingen. James Wade withdrew on the day of the event to focus on the PL, meaning Ryan Searle or Glen Durrant getting a bye through to the Sunday. It was to be the long-haired cheat who got that bye, winning 6-4.
Elsewhere on the Friday, other PL contenders involved included UK Open champ Nathan Aspinall (who averaged 103 in a 6-1 thrashing of Finland's Kim Viljanen), dancing Dimitri Van den Bergh beat Austria's Michael Rasztovits by the same scoreline. Chris Dobey went even better than the Asp and the Dreammaker, whitewashing Madars Razma with a 104 average and only allowing the Latvian a single finishing attempt! Jeffrey de Zwaan completed the showing for the contenders with a 6-2 beating of Swiss qualifier Stefan Bellmont.
Saturday started with Michael Smith producing a 98 average in spite of missing 15 darts at double to beat Krzysztof Ratajski 6-4. DVdB lost 6-5 to Ian White and Gerwyn Price averaged 103 to put away Northern Irish prospect Gavin Carlin 6-1. JdZ finally got a win over Rob Cross that had a 29 darter win it! Daryl Gurney and Steve Beaton both survived match darts from Dobey and Mensur Suljovic respectively, Max Hopp lost 6-4 to Asp and then Michael van Gerwen produced a remarkable struggle against Brendan Dolan, missing strings of doubles that kept Dolan in the match but won it 6-5 with a 14 darter. Peter Wright ended the day by beating young Dutchman Niels Zonneveld 6-4.
Sunday saw Smith, Price and Gurney lose on the afternoon before the biggest upset of the tournament: Snakebite produced a superb display for once and capitalised on MVG's loose doubles to send the reigning champ to just his second ET defeat of the year 6-3. Peter then pummelled first-time semi-finalist Jamie Hughes 7-1 and met Diamond in the final who'd beaten Beaton 7-5. An incredibly tight final saw White survive a match dart before claiming Euro Tour title #2.
>the only time Premier League is played in Leeds every year lel
Blake Butler
Enjoy the last time you see Peter Wright on a PL stage btw.
Owen Thompson
Sky will wildcard him like they did with Barney.
John Thompson
As much as I would love it, I bet that they are going to use some stupid wildcard to have him there next year as well.
Hudson Brooks
If he takes that wildcard without a significant upturn of form then he's a fucking moron, he's literally playing at sub-world-top-32 levels at the moment. Him and Gando at the WC has the potential to be slapstick
Brody Moore
>Him and Gando at the WC has the potential to be slapstick They have Denmark. Would be a bigger upset than when Lim & Lim did them.
Hasn't played THAT poorly. Nowhere near as shit as he has been at times in ths PL.
Josiah Rogers
Looking forward to based Wade mopping the floor with Dross.
Anthony Wood
>drunk cameraman
Mason Ramirez
I'm watching the next match, then switching over to the Eurovision Song Contest semis. Can't really arsed to watch these pointless exhibitions anymore when my favourite players aren't playing. Especially when the standard of play isn't even that "Premier".
And so that D10 concludes the league phase of this year's Premier League Darts.
Overall it really wasn't the best, especially after the Contenders gimmick was removed and Michael Smith and Peter Wright were clearly way behind the rest. But even then the standard from some didn't really fit the "Premier League" tagline.
Michael van Gerwen miraculously topped the table for a 7th successive season after Rob Cross imploded against James Wade in the final match of the season. Daryl Gurney joins those three thanks to his thumping win over Michael Smith. Commiserations of course go to Gerwyn Price, who was eliminated despite winning, and Mensur Suljovic who eventually put up a good fight against MVG but was too far behind to really have an impact.
