Jonny Clayton moved level with Michael van Gerwen at the top of the Darts Premier League after winning his second-night title last week in Birmingham.
The Ferret, who also won on night two in Liverpool, opened up the evening with a 6-1 thrashing of Michael Smith in which he averaged 99.
He elevated his performance even further in his next match where he took out Peter Wright 6-4, raising his average to 103.68 in a match where Snakebite fired in six 180s and averaged 107.71.
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There was more to come from the Welshman, however, as he put in a 111.16 average in the night’s final, a match he won 6-1 against James Wade, who despite reaching two finals, remains one of two players still to win an evening alongside Michael Smith.
The Machine’s performance in the second city does, however, lift him off the bottom of the table and up into fifth place ahead of Gerwyn Price.
After losing 6-5 to Wright in the quarter-finals, Nottingham winner Gary Anderson now occupies bottom spot at the halfway stage ahead of June’s play offs.
The action now moves to the First Direct Arena in Leeds for Night 9. Let’s take a look at the matches on Thursday along with some Darts Premier Night 9 betting picks.
Michael Smith v Peter Wright
The ninth night of this year’s Premier League of Darts gets underway in a match that sees Michael Smith take on Peter Wright.
Bully Boy is still to win a night and fell at the first last week in Birmingham.
The world number one on the other hand was an unfortunate loser seven days ago.
At times, Snakebite put in a sensational shift in his semi-final defeat to Jonny Clayton and on a different day he would have won that game.
The Scotsman also went well over the weekend in the Pro Tour events.
He didn’t register a win but did reach a final with some put in some pretty decent performances over all in the face of some good quality averages going against him.
Only Joe Cullen has hit more 180s (45) than Peter Wright’s 44. These two shared 41 between them in the Darts World Championship final in January so we can expect a high scoring encounter this week in Leeds.
We would expect Wright to take it on the doubles, however.
Gary Anderson v Michael van Gerwen
Should Snakebite make it through, he will face the winner of a tie between Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen.
These two met on the opening night in Cardiff in a match The Flying Scotsman came out on top.
Since then, however, The Green Machine has roared back into form, winning two nights to Anderson’s one to find himself top of the table on leg difference.
Both of these guys have been around the block, won it all and know each other’s game inside out, but based on what we saw from both of them last week, it’s the Dutchman that is favoured even if he wasn’t at his best last Thursday.
Joe Cullen v Jonny Clayton
The third match of the evening pits Joe Cullen up against last week’s champion Jonny Clayton.
The Ferret was in superb form a week ago, improving in each of his three games to go second in the table.
The Rockstar looked good in round one where he took out a lacklustre Gerwyn Price, but Clayton looked even better and was simply unplayable at times.
The only question remains that there are the occasional spells where he comes off the boil a little bit.
That being said, Clayton has won both of their meetings so far in the Premier League without playing at his best, and another win for The Ferret looks to be on the cards.
James Wade v Gerwyn Price
The final match of the night is between last week’s losing finalist James Wade and the world’s number two Gerwyn Price.
Normally, we would put our faith in The Iceman here, but he is not with it right now.
His broken hand is clearly hampering him and last week he looked like he was sporting a black eye too, possibly as a result of his sparring practice for his upcoming boxing match for charity.
The Welshman struggled over the weekend at the Pro Tour too.
In a race to six, throwing first is such an advantage and that, plus the fact that Price seems to be focused elsewhere right now, means we are giving the nod to The Machine in the night’s closing quarter-final.
From there, we’re backing the two stand out players from last week to proceed to the last match of the night.
In a Jonny Clayton v Peter Wright final, things really could go either way, but its high time Snakebite won another night and become a two time winner and he can be backed at 9/2 with bet365 to do exactly that.
BET365 DARTS BETTING PRICES
The Bet365 Online Sportsbook has betting lines up for Night 9 of the 2022 Darts Premier League for the first four matches:
Michael Smith (11/10) v (8/11) Peter Wright
Gary Anderson (6/4) v (8/15) Michael van Gerwen
Joe Cullen (6/5) v (4/6) Jonny Clayton
James Wade (6/4) v (8/15) Gerwyn Price
PREMIER LEAGUE OF DARTS WEEKLY WINNER NIGHT 9 BET365 DARTS BETTING ODDS
Michael van Gerwen – 10/3
Jonny Clayton – 4/1
Gerwyn Price – 4/1
Peter Wright – 9/2
Michael Smith – 7/1
Joe Cullen – 10/1
Gary Anderson – 14/1
James Wade – 14/1
PREMIER LEAGUE OF DARTS OUTRIGHT WINNER BET365 DARTS BETTING ODDS
Michael van Gerwen – 5/2
Peter Wright – 10/3
Jonny Clayton – 4/1
Gerwyn Price – 5/1
Michael Smith – 10/1
Joe Cullen – 12/1
James Wade – 14/1
Gary Anderson – 20/1
PREMIER LEAGUE OF DARTS TABLE
Player | Nights Won | Matches Won | Leg Difference | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|
Michael van Gerwen | 2 | 10 | +23 | 17 |
Jonny Clayton | 2 | 10 | +6 | 17 |
Peter Wright | 1 | 9 | +2 | 16 |
Joe Cullen | 1 | 7 | -4 | 12 |
James Wade | 0 | 6 | -5 | 10 |
Gerwyn Price* | 1 | 5 | -3 | 9 |
Michael Smith | 0 | 5 | -6 | 8 |
Gary Anderson | 1 | 4 | -7 | 7 |
*pulled out of Night Five with injury
QUICK GLANCE AT THE PREMIER LEAGUE OF DARTS WEEK 9
Venue: First Direct Arena, Leeds
Dates: 07/04/2022
Format: Best of 11 legs (first to six)
Current Champion: Jonny Clayton
Where To Watch: Sky Sports Main Event HD & Sky Sports Action HD
When To Watch: 19:00 UK