Darts Premier League
Premier League Darts Night 12 preview: Humphries’ Dam can stop van Gerwen’s flow
Premier League Night 12 is here! We head across the Channel for what we expect to be an eventful evening in Rotterdam. There are now just five weeks left for players to work their way into a play-off spot so we expect them to be at the top of their game, much like last week.
We preview all four matches below.
Michael Smith v Luke Littler (19:15)
In the first match of the evening, Michael Smith will take on the current Premier League table-topper Luke Littler. Both of these players won their quarter-final games on Night 11, Luke Littler went onto the final, but Smith fell short in his semis. Smith beat Gerwyn Price last week in good style, winning 6-3. Smith threw stylish darts and had a three-dart-average of 104.4, his doubling matched his scoring, finishing six from nine darts thrown at the outer-ring.
Luke Littler has been in superb form, reaching last week’s final but just falling short of securing his third straight night victory when losing to Michael van Gerwen. There is potential that the relentless nature of this competition could be taking its toll on Littler, therefore we think that Smith could take advantage here.
Michael Smith is 7/4 to beat Luke Littler in Rotterdam. However, if Smith is going to win, then it’s most likely that he will have to be on his best form and hitting a high number of maximums like we know he can! So the value is definitely in the match treble of Michael Smith to win the match, highest match checkout and most 180’s at a price of 7/1.
Rob Cross v Gerwyn Price (19:45)
The next pair to battle it out at the oche is Rob Cross and Gerwyn Price. Both players sit lower down in the table and will need to put some points on the board if they have any chance of getting into the top four. Cross and Price both lost their quarter-finals last week, ironically to the two players before them in Rotterdam.
Price has shown somewhat of a resurgence in recent weeks and he is playing much better darts. In the week, Price reached the final of the European Tour 3, narrowly missing out on his fifth International Darts Open win in Germany. However, he showed a lot more promise and we think we may have the ‘Iceman’ back throwing his better darts. This should be a tight game and we can see it finishing 6-4 to Price, which is 9/2. The selection here is Gerwyn Price to continue his Open form into Thursday night by beating Cross at 8/15.
Peter Wright v Nathan Aspinall (20:15)
Peter Wright has still only managed to win two matches in this year’s Premier League campaign, this week he is up against Nathan Aspinall and we can’t see him changing his fortunes.
Nathan Aspinall has been in good form in this competition and was unlucky to have faced overall night winner Michael van Gerwen in the quarter-finals last week. This being said, neither players’ doubling has been very consistent, last week Wright’s successful double percentage was 30.77% and Nathan Aspinall’s was not much better at 36.36%. If either player wavers at a key moment it could very much leave the door open for the other to take the game out of sight in this short format. This being said, we feel Wright is the more likely to not find a double leading to Aspinall breaking early.
This is Aspinall’s game to lose and we don’t think he will. Nathan Aspinall to win the match, highest match checkout and to have the most 180’s at 5/2 is the route to finding some value.
Michael van Gerwen v Luke Humphries (20:45)
Arguably, Rotterdam has saved the best till last in terms of quarter-finals! Michael van Gerwen, who has won four of the nights, takes on Luke Humphries, who has won three. Alongside Luke Littler, these players have been clear of the others, based on quality and consistency.
The last time these two met Luke Humphries astounded the darting world with one of the best performances of the year. The final of the European Tour 2 saw Luke Humphries annihilate Michael van Gerwen 8-1, and quite frankly embarrass him. This game in Rotterdam won’t be as easy and we’re sure Michael van Gerwen, with the help of the Dutch crowd, will put up more of a fight.
Luke Humphries can spoil the party, and we think he will at a score of 6-3. Luke Humphries to beat Michael van Gerwen 6-3 is 11/2.
