Thursday was due to be Judgement Night in the Premier League Darts season but with the two men who will be eliminated already determined, it is merely Night 9 of the campaign inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
The league pauses for a couple of weeks after this evening so the eight players who will be coming back next month will be eager to go into the break off the back of a win. The standard was a bit below par on Wednesday but with no relegation issues anymore expect that to increase again here.
Glen Durrant vs Rob Cross
The final night of the first phase of the competition begins with the eliminated pair of Glen Durrant and Rob Cross playing their final match of the competition this season in what is basically a higher profile exhibition clash now.
Durrant won’t want to end his title defence without a point to his name so it might be that he has a little more motivation going into this match than Cross who must be disappointed that his performances have not got the results they have deserved this season. This is still a dead rubber though and I’ve no real interest in betting on one of them.
Jonny Clayton vs Michael van Gerwen
The second match of the night is where the race for the play-offs kicks in as Jonny Clayton, who despite a fine start to the season now effectively sits in bottom place in the table, takes on a Michael van Gerwen who is looking ominously good in second place in the standings.
Clayton hasn’t picked up a win this week but he hasn’t necessarily thrown bad darts, he just hasn’t hit any doubles under pressure and that needs to change both if he is to get a result here and indeed push on and make the postseason. I don’t think we’ve seen van Gerwen at his true best but there have been signs his better stuff is still in him so he certainly shouldn’t be written off. I wouldn’t put anyone off van Gerwen at 10/11 here but if Clayton pins his doubles he is capable of putting him under pressure.
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Nathan Aspinall vs Gary Anderson
The middle match of the evening sees Nathan Aspinall taking on Gary Anderson in a battle of two players who will not want to be sat watching the finals of the competition later in the season given their ambitions this term.
Aspinall sits third in the league going into this match and still his only loss was against the table topper Van den Bergh in a match the Englishman was in control of. Because of the insane darts of others he has gone slightly under the radar this season, although a couple of his wins have come over eliminated players who weren’t at their best against him. Anderson dropped out of the top four on Wednesday evening when Dimitri Van den Bergh pinched both points off him and he’ll be out to win this one to get back in there.
Anderson was an absolute mess on the doubles on Wednesday evening and that makes me think the best bet here is Aspinall, albeit without the draw in play because these two often produce close encounters when they meet. Aspinall has the chance to get in front with the throw and pile the pressure on those Anderson doubles and that could well yield some further success for the youngster in an even looking match.
Jose de Sousa vs Peter Wright
The penultimate match of the evening sees the heavy scoring Portuguese ace Jose de Sousa going up against the former world champion Peter Wright in an important match for both men with them both sitting outside the top four heading into the game.
The winner of this one will be sitting nicely heading into the second part of the regular season whereas the loser will be playing catch up when the competition returns so there is plenty on this match. Wright has lost two and picked up a narrow win over Glen Durrant this week. De Sousa lost to van Gerwen in a great game on Wednesday but had won his previous two this week prior to that. I sense if there is a winner here it will be de Sousa but the man from Portugal scares me senseless with his counting so rather than back him to win I’ll back him to hit more than 4.5 180s. He has hit at least five 180s in all three matches this week and of course earlier in the competition hit 11 in one match. In a match which could be quite close I think he will have more than enough time to plough in a fifth maximum if not more.
Dimitri Van den Bergh vs James Wade
The final match of the night looks to be the pick of them on paper as it is the only one which features two players who enter the evening in the top four. League leader Dimitri Van den Bergh takes on James Wade to round off the first half of the league phase.
Van den Bergh is beginning to pull clear a little bit in the table after three successive wins this week but in two of them he was very fortunate that opponents had complete mares on their doubles so his form might be exaggerated just a touch. Wade has won four of his last five after a slow start to the season and the loss was only in a last leg against the power scoring of de Sousa. That would all tell me that Wade might be value here but when he threw second in that loss to de Sousa he was broken in the final leg to lose 7-5 which is a concern. The other thing which puts me off is there might still be more in the Van den Bergh tank should he be required to bring it out so I’m happy to watch this one rather than bet on it.
Tips
WON – Back N.Aspinall to beat G.Anderson (DNB) for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
WON – Back J.de Sousa – Over 4.5 180s for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with William Hill
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