Year: 2019

Michael van Gerwen returned to his imperious best last week as he shattered Gerwyn Price’s unbeaten run with a brilliant 7-2 victory over the Welshman in Nottingham.

It was a surprisingly low-quality affair with oddly low averages in the 70s and 80s early on for both players. It wasn’t until the eighth leg when MVG kicked the match into life with a 132-checkout on the bull for a 12-darter that the game finally showed some class, while also putting the Dutchman 5-2 ahead. One round earlier, Mighty Mike took out a 13-darter just as he did in the ninth leg to guarantee himself at least a point. He took both, however, after he claimed the last in style to bring his final average up to 96.98 compared to The Iceman’s 92.95.

A recap of Night 6

In the night’s first action, Michael Smith claimed a much-needed victory as he comfortably saw off the challenge from the latest contender Nathan Aspinall in a 7-2 mauling. Last year’s runner-up raced into an early 4-0 lead before The Asp finally got points on the board before claiming the following two legs for good measure. Then it was Bully Boy’s turn to two claim two legs on the spin to take things to 6-2 before he wrapped up neatly with a match-winning 127 checkout. By the end, Smith averaged 93.99 over Aspinall’s 88.35.

James Wade surrendered top spot in match two as he was surprisingly shot down by Mensur Suljovic, who produced his best performance of the season so far. In a 7-3 victory, The Gentle averaged 101.38 and fired six 180s to overcome The Machine who had, only two weeks before, beaten Michael van Gerwen prior to recording the 10th whitewash in Premier League history over Daryl Gurney. In contrast, Suljovic had found himself adrift from the pace setters at the top having only won one match prior to his meeting with Wade. Scoring a match-high checkout of 109 in leg six, Suljovic moved into a 4-2 lead before Wade banked an 11-dart leg, from a finish from 76 to stay in the game. From there, The Gentle reeled off the next three legs in 14, 15 and 16 darts to send The Machine packing with an average of 97.05.

Rob Cross became the third player to sit at the top of the Premier League table after he recorded an impressive 7-3 victory over Raymond van Barneveld, who remains rock-bottom in his farewell season. Voltage made it three wins in a row to take his tally to nine points from six games, dropping just seven legs in his last three. In a messy end to the match, Cross took 18-darts to seal the victory as well as an average of 102.85 which included three 180s to Barney’s four. Van Barneveld, still without a win, has only managed two draws so far but was showing signs of a fighting spirit at 2-2. He then missed two chances at tops, which allowed Cross to run off with the contest. Barney finished the evening with an average of just 92.27 and the knowledge that, unless something changes soon, he’ll be saying goodbye to DPL for good on Judgement Night on March 28 in Rotterdam.

Thursday night’s action concluded with Daryl Gurney and Peter Wright sharing the points in a 6-6 tie. Snakebite looked like he would be taking all the points himself only to see Superchin rescue a draw from the jaws of defeat to end a dismal run of form for the Northern Irishman. Coming off the back of 7-1 and 7-0 Premier League defeats to Rob Cross and James Wade respectively, coupled with an early UK Open exit, results have overseen an alarming drop in form for Gurney. He looked to be heading for another bad result after finding himself down 6-3 to a superior Snakebite. On the way to his lead, which guaranteed him at least a point, Wright landed a 90 checkout as part of an 11-darter before repeating the trick from the same score only this time on the bull. In true Wright style though, the victory wasn’t snatched as it should have been. Gurney, the 2018 Players Championship Finals winner, reeled off three successive legs in 13, 14 and 14 darts to nick the draw despite averaging eight points less than Peter Wright’s 102.91.

Darts Premier League Night 7 Betting Tips

Rob Cross looks to finally be back to his best, or at least something like it, which makes the night’s opener against Gerwyn Price an intriguing tie. Fresh off the back of his 7-3 win over Barney, he meets a Price that was put firmly in place a week ago but who was unbeaten prior to that. Given that his one defeat so far came against a rejuvenated MVG, last week’s poor result can be forgiven. On past form, the Welshman has won two of his five matches against Cross but has, last week notwithstanding, enjoyed a decent campaign so far. On form, Cross should take this one, but don’t be surprised to see The Iceman result to his old antics which may or may not be appreciated by the Berlin crowd. It’s a close one, but I’m siding with Price on this one.

Next out are James Wade and the ever erratic Peter Wright. Snakebite threw away a point last week against Daryl Gurney to give him his third stalemate in six matches. Despite another winless week, Wright still fared better than this week’s opponent, who himself suffered a blow with a surprise defeat to Mensur Suljovic. The Machine has otherwise performed well so far this season and was top until last week’s defeat, which he will hope was a one-off. A close game is expected but Wade should just about edge it.

Michael van Gerwen was back to his winning ways last week as he made short work of Gerwyn Price even if the score line did flatter him after another off key performance. This week he faces Daryl Gurney fresh from rescuing a point a week ago, but with a continental crowd behind him, and seemingly able to win while underperforming, Mighty Mike should have enough to see off Superchin, who has only won seven legs in the past three weeks.

Match four pits Michael Smith against Mensur Suljovic. Last week in Nottingham, Smith saw off the challenge from this season’s latest contender, Nathan Aspinall, and will be looking to keep up the momentum. That said, Mensur, too, took home all the points last week as both players seek for the kind of form that has so far eluded them previously. Despite Bully Boy being installed as the obvious and natural favourite, The Gentle has more than enough to present a challenge to Smith and something is drawing me to the Austrian this week.

Wrapping things up this week are Raymond van Barneveld and Max Hopp, the newest contender who hails from Idstein, near Frankfurt as the League heads to Germany, albeit Berlin. Barney’s last-ever showing at the Premier League before retirement is not exactly going to plan as he currently finds himself three points adrift of safety with Judgement Night fast approaching. Ordinarily, the popular Dutchman can count on strong support from the crowd but facing a German in Germany might just impact on this. Nevertheless, I expect Barney to finally get off the mark this week with a win in Berlin.

So then, this week’s acca looks as follows; Gerwyn Price, James Wade, Michael van Gerwen, Mensur Suljovic and Raymond van Barneveld, which pays at 58/1 with Betway.

• (13/8) Gerwyn Price v Rob Cross (6/5)
• (6/4) James Wade v Peter Wright (13/10)
• (2/7) Michael van Gerwen v Daryl Gurney (13/2)
• (11/10) Michael Smith v Mensur Suljovic (7/4)
• (13/10) Max Hopp v Raymond van Barneveld (6/4)

QUICK GLANCE AT THE DARTS PREMIER LEAGUE – WEEK 7

Venue: Mercedes-Benz Arena, Berlin
Dates: Thursday 21.03.2019
Format: Best of 12 legs
Current Champion: Michael van Gerwen
Where To Watch: Sky Sports
When To Watch: (1900 GMT)

An emotional local contender John ‘Highlander’ Henderson enjoyed one of his most memorable nights on the oche in Aberdeen last Thursday as he claimed an unlikely tie against Michael van Gerwen. The Scottish crowd produced an unbelievable atmosphere for the 45-year-old who was moved to tears during his walk-on to the tune of Flower Of Scotland leading into Rocking All Over The World.

The local thrower from Huntley opened with a decent 180 in the first leg and although it couldn’t stop him from falling 3-0 behind soon after, it still brought the house down. Following a disastrous week which saw him suffer two defeats in as many days, Mighty Mike moved 5-2 clear before faltering enough to allow his opponent to take back-to-back legs and move to within one. Banking himself at least a point, MVG edged into a 6-4 lead before Henderson, boosted by the support of the crowd, reeled off two 14-darters in a row to seal a shock draw.

A review of other Darts Premier League Night 5 action

In the first match of the evening, Rob Cross eased to a 7-3 victory over Michael Smith in a repeat of the UK Open semi-final less than a week earlier. Smith made the stronger start of the two, going up 2-1 only for Voltage to level things prior to hitting a brilliant 164 checkout to break Bully Boy’s throw. From there, Cross reeled off three legs in a row to guarantee himself at least a point with room to spare. Smith replied by finding the bull for a fine checkout from 90, before Voltage closed out the match.

The 10th Premier League Darts whitewash in history was recorded in match two when James Wade thrashed Daryl Gurney 7-0. Fresh from inflicting Mighty Michael van Gerwen’s first defeat of the Premier League season a week ago in Exeter, The Machine produced another dominant performance in which he averaged 109.59 while also hitting two ton-plus checkouts. Wade finished with seven doubles from nine, winning six of his seven legs in 15 darts or less. Superchin, who averaged 95.45, was battered 7-1 by Rob Cross in Night 5 and this latest heavy defeat now leaves his leg difference in tatters.

In match three, Gerwyn Price once again had to play through the boos as he produced another good performance in which he brushed aside Mensur Suljovic. Price earned his pantomime villain tag after his antics against Gary Anderson in the Grand Slam of Darts back in November, and clearly the Aberdeen crowd were not in a forgiving mood. Despite the crowd behind against him, The Iceman coolly carried on as he has all Premier League season to maintain his unbeaten start to the campaign. The Welshman landed a 107 in the opening leg while he hit a 12-darter in the fifth to race into a 4-1 lead. Price then took the sixth before The Gentle responded with an 11 darter to close the gap, albeit only slightly. The pair then shared the following two legs to allow Price to scoop up all the points for that match. Former rugby player Price finished with an average of 93.26 compared to Suljovic’s 95.67.

The last match of the evening produced a win for Peter Wright, who produced arguably his finest performance of the season so far where he beat Raymond van Barneveld 7-3. The win sees Snakebite move up to fifth in the table but does little for Barney’s hopes of going out with a bang. The Dutchman now sits bottom and this latest defeat sees him being cut off from the rest of the chasers. Barney did take the opening leg only for Wright to take the next five in a row. RVB then finished from 81 for an 11-darter only to see Snakebite land his third and final 180 of the night as part of an 10-darter. There was still time for Barney, who averaged 95.36, to pull one back but it was to make no difference as Snakebite, who averaged 106.64, finished the contest soon after.

Darts Premier League Week 6 Betting Tips

We open with a tough one this week in Nottingham, as UK Open winner Nathan Aspinall takes part as the latest contender. We have seen some great performances from local heroes – all playing in place of the injured Gary Anderson – not least, Chris Dobey in Night 1 and John ‘Highlander’ Henderson’s draw with MVG last week. This week, however, could represent the best chance yet to back a contender for the win. One of the fastest rising stars of the PDC, The Asp certainly has the potential to heap more misery on Smith, who is currently struggling badly. Last year’s runner-up is second to the bottom with one win in five and needs desperately to turn things around soon. Arguably, his best chance to do that is against a contender — it’s just a shame that it happens to be this one. Aspinall win.

Out of nowhere, James Wade appears to be playing his best darts ever. Having dispatched world number one Michael van Gerwen seven days earlier, The Machine last week dumped Daryl Gurney in a whitewash performance that took him top on leg difference. With Suljovic struggling for form, Wade should come through this test relatively untroubled. Another player showing the form of old is Rob Cross, who suddenly looks like the player he was at the end of 2018 when he was crowned world champion. Voltage has won two on the spin with victories over Daryl Gurney and Michael Smith, and with bottom-placed Barney looking all kinds of wrong, it is hard to see Cross not taking all the points here.

Match four pits Michael van Gerwen against Gerwyn Price in a battle of the heavyweights. The unbeaten Iceman will fancy his chances against an MVG who is looking increasingly out of sorts. A defeat to James Wade was followed by another the following night, to Mervyn King at the UK Open. Last week he dropped even more points, this time against local hero John Henderson. Even so, it is never advisable to bet against the Dutch world champion, even less so given that Mighty Mike has won all 13 meetings against the Welshman.

Finally, this week we have selected Peter Wright to beat Daryl Gurney. Wright put in his best performance of the season so far in Aberdeen winning easily against Barney while Superchin has lost 13 legs and won just one in the last two weeks of Premier League Darts action. Also, Gurney has not beaten Wright in their last four matches so we’ll stick with a Snakebite win.

This week’s accumulator with Betway looks like this; Aspinall, Wade, Cross, MVG and Wright which pays 23.25/1.

• (7/4) Nathan Aspinall v Michael Smith (11/10)
• (1/1) James Wade v Mensur Suljovic (15/8)
• (8/15) Rob Cross v Raymond van Barneveld (100/30)
• (4/1) Gerwyn Price v Michael van Gerwen (4/9)
• (10/11) Peter Wright v Daryl Gurney (21/10)

QUICK GLANCE AT THE DARTS PREMIER LEAGUE – Night 6

Venue: Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham
Dates: Thursday 14.03.2019
Format: Best of 12 legs
Current Champion: Michael van Gerwen
Where To Watch: Sky Sports
When To Watch: (1900 GMT)