The Premier League Darts is back on the stage on Thursday night when Brighton hosts the sixth weekly competition between the eight elite players who are seriously entertaining us in the tournament so far.
Nathan Aspinall was the winner in Exeter last week and he’ll be looking for back-to-back successes but the other seven players have had plenty of time to recover and get themselves ready to go again so we should be in for a decent night.
Luke Humphries vs Gerwyn Price
We begin the evening with a clash between the world champion Luke Humphries, who might carry extra motivation into this night after his agonising defeat to Dimitri Van den Bergh in the final of The Masters at the weekend, and the former world title winner Gerwyn Price.
Price was sent packing in the first match that he played at the UK Open last week which means that after successive Premier League quarter final defeats he has now lost his last four matches in all competitions, two of them to Christian Perez and Martin Schindler which suggests he isn’t quite in top form at the minute. Humphries looked incredible at the UK Open up until the final but he has lost three of his last four matches in the Premier League so it might be that he hasn’t quite settled in the competition just yet so I’ll leave that one alone.
Rob Cross vs Michael van Gerwen
The second quarter final in Brighton sees the home man Rob Cross going up against the current Premier League table topper Michael van Gerwen in what should be a juicy clash if both play to their best.
I make that comment though because it looks pretty clear that Van Gerwen is carrying some sort of an injury with his shoulder. He was below par at the Premier League last week and then looked very ordinary in being dumped out of the UK Open by Mensur Suljovic in the first match he played in that event. Cross made it to the quarter finals in Minehead before a busy period of darts looked to catch up with him but he’s had a few days off and won’t have needed to travel the day before the event given that he is pretty local to the Brighton Centre. These two usually deliver close matches but if MVG is feeling an injury then with the crowd behind him this could be the night that Cross ends a four-match losing streak to the ‘Green Machine’. At 11/8 Cross has to be the bet here.
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Nathan Aspinall vs Luke Littler
The third of the quarter finals pits the winner of last week in Nathan Aspinall up against the man many think will lift the title at the o2 in a couple of months in Luke Littler in what should be another great game if both play up to their form.
Aspinall heads into the night off the back of winning in Exeter last week but then he suffered a nasty loss to Damon Heta at the UK Open in a match he was in full control of at 8-4 only to lose 10-9. That is a concern for me. There is no doubt that there has been a drop off in the level of Littler over the last couple of weeks. That is no criticism of him, there had to be a drop off at some point, but it will be interesting to see if he has his best darts with him here or if everything has finally caught up with him. I still expect Littler’s scoring power to get him through here but the odds are cramped enough for me to leave this one alone.
Michael Smith vs Peter Wright
The last of the quarter finals might be the most intriguing one as two former world champions collide when Michael Smith looks to build on his win in the opening night of the season when he takes on a Peter Wright who is still looking for his first win of the campaign.
There is no doubt that Wright is playing a lot better now than he was when the season began but he hasn’t been able to convert that into points yet and really needs to not only win a quarter final soon but probably win a whole night to get himself back into contention in this competition. This might be the best chance he has too because there is no doubt that Smith is not firing even close to full capacity at the minute. We are used to him ploughing in 100+ averages over this relatively short format but he has only thrown two of those in eight games in the Premier League, one of which was that insane game with Price in week two. Smith has lost his last four matches in this competition and didn’t really hit the heights at the UK Open at the weekend. Wright is playing better but I don’t think he is in top form either so I wouldn’t be surprised if this is one of those matches where they drag each other down a bit and with that in mind a 97.5 average from Smith looks a little out of reach to me. He covered this last week against Littler but Littler left him stranded on 308 and 170 in two of the legs. Wright won’t be doing that so the scoring will naturally come down for Smith when he has to set up finishes and things. I’ll play the under.
Night 6 Betting
The betting market for night six is quite a competitive one. This is the first time that the four sort of major contenders for this tournament in the eyes of the bookmakers – Michael van Gerwen, Michael Smith, Luke Humphries and Luke Littler have all been kept apart in the quarter finals and are spread across the draw as a result. I’ve no interest in van Gerwen in light of his injury issues and Smith isn’t playing well enough right now in my mind.
That leaves it between the two Lukes for a bet and I think Humphries might have a point to prove. We’ve seen Littler fade the longer the night has gone on when he has won a quarter final recently and that is completely understandable but with Humphries at the top of the draw bracket and having the maximum recovery time between matches I think that could be the difference. He is also 9/2 compared to the 10/3 or so that Littler is. I think Humphries is good value to put the UK Open behind him in style.
Tips
Back R.Cross to beat M.van Gerwen for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with Bet365
Back M.Smith – Under 97.5 average vs P.Wright for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back L.Humphries to win Night 6 for a 1/10 stake at 5.50 with Bet365
