We have seen our first eliminations for the 2021 Darts Premier League as reigning champion Glen Durrant and Rob Cross finished in the bottom two league places before we had even reached Thursday night’s Judgment Night.
Players will now down darts until May the 5th when play resumes, again at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes. A final two batches of games will take place before we reach the playoff stage by May the 28th.
Play finished last Thursday with new League leader Nathan Aspinall thrashing Gary Anderson 7-2 as he stretched his unbeaten run to six games. The Asp averaged 102.45 as he put a below par Flying Scotsman to bed.
Aspinall just pipped debutant Dimitri Van den Bergh to top spot after the Belgian had squandered a three set lead over James Wade, a last minute replacement for the sick Gerwyn Price, to draw 6-6.
Wade now sits in fourth place one behind Michael van Gerwen who lost out to Jonny Clayton. Gary Anderson now props up the table, while Jose de Sousa and Peter Wright make up the numbers in sixth and seventh, respectively.
Despite being third, Michael van Gerwen is the 15/8 favourite ahead of the Dream Maker Dimitri van den Bergh. In the absence of Gerwyn Price — after the world number one withdrew on the opening day following the return of a positive virus test — the tourney is surely MVG’s to lose. To be fair, this year’s condensed schedule always favoured the Dutchman, who is still the short-priced favourite to win the Premier League for the sixth time.
But it’s underrated Nathan Aspinall who deservedly leads the way at this sort of halfway stage. We always thought 20/1 – The Asp’s price a month at the start of April – was generous and his odds have now been cut to 11/2, which is still pretty decent given he hasn’t lost a game in six games.
For a while, The Ferret Jonny Clayton looked like a Premier League natural but that has eased off slightly of late. That was before he put away Mighty Mike. The Welshman remains in the hunt and could make the playoffs after which anything can happen.
Semi-Finals (Best of 19 legs)
Final (Best of 21 legs)