The Premier League Darts season moves to a third country in as many weeks on Thursday evening when Glasgow plays host to the tournament as the eight players once again get together to play down to a weekly winner.
So far this season we have had Chris Dobey and Gerwyn Price win weeks and with Peter Wright the man with home advantage in Glasgow he will hope to add his name to the list, as will everyone else on another competitive evening of darts.
Nathan Aspinall vs Michael van Gerwen
The evening begins with two men who will have made positive starts to their Premier League season when Nathan Aspinall takes on the defending champion Michael van Gerwen for a spot in the first semi-final in Glasgow.
These two met in the World Grand Prix final last year when van Gerwen came out on top but not before Aspinall gave him a mighty scare and threatened a comeback. Both men have looked in good touch in the Premier League so far and while you would have to give the edge to van Gerwen here, Aspinall is certainly playing well enough to both keep him honest and sway me from getting too involved in the match.
Peter Wright vs Dimitri Van den Bergh
The second quarter final is the one which involves the home player Peter Wright. He will look to use the Glasgow crowd to his advantage when he takes on Dimitri Van den Bergh, a player who he has a lot of time and respect for.
Van den Bergh has made an acceptable start to his Premier League campaign but Wright hasn’t got going at all yet and will hope that being on home soil inspires a performance out of him. If it does I suspect he’ll come out on top in this one but he’s plenty short enough for a man who hasn’t been in it at all and who might not even have the throw on his side. I still have my concerns over whether Van den Bergh believes he can beat the true best in the game on these stages though. The Belgian did beat Wright at the World Matchplay last year but has generally been well held aside from that. If I was forced to I’d take my chances that DVDB does believe in the job but I wouldn’t be completely confident.
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Gerwyn Price vs Michael Smith
The penultimate quarter final of the evening sees the winner of last week in Gerwyn Price going up against the current world number one and world champion Michael Smith in a big game for both men for different reasons.
Price will look to prove that last week was the start of something resembling a good run for him while Smith will be out to show that he can deliver the goods in this company on a more regular basis now that he is at the summit of the game. To be fair, although Smith only has one win in three matches in the Premier League, he has topped the 100 average on all three occasions whereas Price is yet to average 98 in the event. You can’t knock a bloke for winning but he was very lucky that the crowd assisted him last week, although he more than deserved that given what he has to put up with for the rest of the year. He won’t have that crowd backing here and with Smith boosting his confidence with a few wins on the pro tour at the weekend I’ll take him to continue a run which has seen him win six of the last seven TV meetings against Price.
Jonny Clayton vs Chris Dobey
The quarter finals conclude in Glasgow with a man who has made a surprisingly poor start to the season in Jonny Clayton going up against the winner of the opening night in The Masters champion Chris Dobey.
Dobey came back down to earth last week when Price dumped him out at this stage but he remains in good position heading into the Glasgow leg of the competition. Clayton is already under a bit of pressure here. He hasn’t yet got a point and if he comes up dry in this quarter final then he could see the top four begin to skip clear of him. Clayton missed a number of doubles in his two defeats to date but he’ll be hoping a spin to the semi-final of the opening Players Championship event last weekend will have brought the confidence on the outer ring back. If it has I can see him winning this but he’s plenty short enough too.
Tips
Back M.Smith to beat G.Price for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
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