It is the final round of regular season action in the Premier League Darts campaign on Thursday night when Sheffield will be the venue where we confirm the line up for finals night in the competition a week from today.
Three men know they will be at the o2 Arena and we will find out whether it is Nathan Aspinall or Michael van Gerwen who will join Luke Littler, Luke Humphries and Gerwyn Price at the iconic London venue on a key night of action.
Luke Littler vs Stephen Bunting
The final night of the regular season means that the quarter finals are played out in table order and that sees top playing bottom to get the night underway when Luke Littler goes up against Stephen Bunting in the first match.
This match doesn’t mean much to Littler in the overall scheme of things as whatever happens here the world champion will finish on top of the table but it carries a little extra something for Stephen Bunting, who will come off the bottom of the table for the first time this season should he win the match and could finish as high as sixth in the standings were he then to go on and win the night. The problem that Bunting has is he is 3-1 down to Littler in their Premier League meetings this season and in truth there has been nothing to suggest that will change here. This isn’t a match I’m rushing to get involved in.
Nathan Aspinall vs Michael van Gerwen
The big match of the night is the second one onto the stage as fourth placed Nathan Aspinall goes up against the fifth placed man Michael van Gerwen with the pair facing off in the quarter final for the second week in succession.
Aspinall won that match and then went on and won the night which means that were ‘The Asp’ to win this contest he will take the fourth spot at the o2 Arena next week. Van Gerwen can still book his spot at finals night but he has to win this and then go on and win the night and with the Dutchman yet to win a night this season you would think that is going to be a little farfetched. I took Aspinall to win that meeting last week and he obliged fairly comfortably. That is now four wins from five in the Premier League for Aspinall against his Dutch rival this season and with MVG now on a run of five straight defeats in all tournaments it is hard to make the case for the winner last week not rubber stamping his place at the o2 here. Aspinall could yet snatch third in the table by winning here so he is motivated and at odds against he has to be the bet again.
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Luke Humphries vs Rob Cross
We move into the bottom half of the night 16 draw bracket in the third quarter final where the world number one Luke Humphries will take on Rob Cross in a battle between second in the table and second from bottom in it.
I mentioned a couple of meetings ago between these two men in the Premier League that Cross has a decent record against Humphries. He actually leads their meetings 14-11 overall and is only 7-6 down on TV so there is something about playing ‘Cool Hand’ that ‘Voltage’ seems to enjoy. Cross is very much the unlucky man of this Premier League season. He actually has the third highest tournament average in the competition but hasn’t got the results that his standard has deserved. He might have the best chance here though. Humphries can’t do anything other than finish second in the table and the European Tour event this weekend might have more of his focus than this match. Cross can still finish sixth in the table which would be worth an extra five grand to him which is nothing to sniff about and given that he is clearly confident playing Humphries I think Cross could be value here. Cross has lost six of his last seven quarter finals but he has averaged over 97 in all but one of them. If he averages that here that could be enough to beat an unmotivated Humphries.
Gerwyn Price vs Chris Dobey
It is third against sixth to round off the quarter finals on the last night of regular season action and that means that Gerwyn Price will go up against Chris Dobey in a game where league placings is the only thing riding on it.
Price has secured his spot at the o2 but he needs to match the Aspinall night if he is to finish third and avoid Luke Littler in the semi-finals next week, although given his record against the world champion, Price might not be that worried about that. Dobey could have sixth spot confirmed by the time he takes to the stage but were van Gerwen to lose to Aspinall, Dobey could finish fifth overall if he wins the night. That is unlikely though so how much motivation there is for either man remains to be seen. Price has a relatively good record in this venue in this format but even that isn’t enough to reel me in here.
Night 16 Betting
The last night of the regular season was always going to be a tough one to bet on because at no stage has it looked like Luke Littler and Luke Humphries would be in the same half of the draw but the other thing to factor into the equation is who has what in terms of motivation. The only player we can truly say has motivation to win the night is Michael van Gerwen but he will have to polish off three of the top four in order to do it if there are no shock results.
There is a part of me that things that someone low down the table could be some value given that for three of them it is going to be the last chance to show what they can do in the tournament this season and who knows how long after that. Of the three maybe Rob Cross could be the best value as if he can beat Luke Humphries he could easily see his draw open right up but I don’t really like guessing motivation with little to play for so I’ll leave the night betting alone.
Tips
Back N.Aspinall to beat M.van Gerwen for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
Back R.Cross to beat L.Humphries for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with William Hill
Back him here:
