The Premier League Darts heads to Berlin for the second week of the season with those players who got off to decent starts last week looking to consolidate their position in the early table, while those who didn’t go so well in Cardiff will be aiming to make up for it here.
Michael Smith won the week in Cardiff seven days ago and he is the man they are all looking to catch but Thursday presents another chance for points for all eight players on what should be a very entertaining night of darts.
Nathan Aspinall vs Michael van Gerwen
The opening quarter final of the night sees two men who lost out at this stage last week looking for their first points of the season when Nathan Aspinall looks to build on his run to the semi-final of The Masters when he faces the man who lost out in the final of that competition in Michael van Gerwen.
Aspinall had a decent enough run in Milton Keynes but his woes on the doubles are beginning to become a real concern and over a short sprint like this I can’t really be having him until he sorts that part of his game out. To be fair, van Gerwen can be known to give out some help to his opponents with a few missed doubles of his own but I have noticed in 2024 that he is scoring a lot more consistently and that is serving him well. I would expect MVG to come through here but the odds are fully reflective of that so I’m happy to leave this one alone.
Michael Smith vs Gerwyn Price
The second quarter final is a repeat of the final from Cardiff last week where the top two in the early league table meet as Michael Smith looks to follow up his night one win when he takes on a Gerwyn Price who won’t have a home crowd behind him here.
Smith got the better of Price in front of the Welshman’s home crowd last week so he should be feeling good about his chances of coming out on top here. Since then though the 2023 world champion lost in his opening match at The Masters, while Price skipped that tournament altogether amid personal issues so it remains to be seen what shape he is in. I liked Smith last week. I wouldn’t say he was perfect but the scoring power was there when he needed it and I fancy he’ll come through this one. We know Price won’t get the crowd support, although it probably won’t be as bad as it will be when he is back in England, and Smith has now won their last three Premier League meetings. At odds against I think the value is with the Englishman here.
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Luke Littler vs Rob Cross
The penultimate quarter final on the evening is a repeat of the semi-final from the World Championship as Luke Littler looks to pick up a second successive win over a Rob Cross, who probably felt he was the world champion in waiting until he ran into Littler.
Littler extracted revenge over Luke Humphries in Cardiff last week before losing out to Michael van Gerwen in the semi-final while Cross also won his opening match in Wales before he went down at the semi-final stage to Gerwyn Price. If you go back to that World Championship semi-final, Cross came flying out of the traps and took the opening two sets and if he does that here he will have his man. Littler has gained plenty of experience since that night, winning in Bahrain and only just going down to van Gerwen in the final in the Netherlands. I respect Cross enough not to get involved in this as this looks the most intriguing match of the night.
Luke Humphries vs Peter Wright
The last of the quarter finals looks to be the biggest mismatch of them all as the world champion and world number one Luke Humphries takes on a Peter Wright who is really struggling with his game and is going to have to battle his demons against the best in the world.
It does have to be said that since he won the world title Humphries hasn’t really done much. He has lost all four matches that he has played against top 32 ranked players since he lifted the world title and so while I expect Humphries to win, I’m less convinced about taking him on handicaps and things. Wright is really struggling. Although he did well to see off Krzysztof Ratajski in the second round of The Masters, he was firmly put in his place in the quarter final by eventual champion Stephen Bunting. There is no way I can be backing Wright here but he took three legs off of Rob Cross last week and might keep Humphries a bit more honest than the odds and likes would suggest.
Night 2 Betting
Much like in the opening week of the tournament we have a stronger looking half of the draw and a weaker one with the top half looking decent enough with Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price and Michael Smith in it whereas the bottom half does look a bit of a straight up race between Luke Littler and Luke Humphries, albeit Rob Cross could have a bit to say about that. Needless to say in such a scenario I’m heading to the bottom of the bracket for a bet.
That would be a wonderful semi-final and it might be interesting that Littler has won both of the matches against Humphries over this format in the last few weeks. If you go back to the World Championship final it was Littler who reached six legs first in that as well. I’m not convinced Humphries has played that badly since he won the world title. He was put off by an idiot whistling in Cardiff last week but Littler will always have the crowd support in meetings between the two and that could be the difference so with William Hill boosting Littler to 4/1 to win on the night I think that is a price worth getting involved with.
Tips
Back M.Smith to beat G.Price for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back L.Littler to win Night 2 for a 2/10 stake at 5.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
