Darts Premier League
Premier League Darts Night 16 preview: Clayton and Aspinall in race to make playoffs
The Premier League Darts returns for its final night of action before next week’s playoffs in London, with Aberdeen playing host to Thursday’s fixtures.
We preview all four of the quarter finals below.
Gerwyn Price v Peter Wright
Our first matchup of the evening sees the 5/2 outright favourite to win the Night, Gerwyn Price, take on Peter Wright – the latter still looking for his first evening win after 15 attempts. It’s been a tournament to forget for Snakebite, who will be looking to avoid becoming the first player in Premier League Darts history to not win a night when he steps on stage in Aberdeen on Thursday. Needless to say, he starts as the 19/10 underdog and will have to totally turn round his form if he is to make the semi-finals.
Gerwyn Price found himself in another final in last week’s competition in Sheffield but lost 6-3 to Michael Smith – his third consecutive final defeat in as many weeks. Having however won 6-3 in the Night 11, it means The Iceman has reached four consecutive finals on the bounce and finds himself 15/8 to win the entire tournament, whilst he is the heavy 2/5 frontrunner to progress to the semi finals in this one. We also like the look of Price to win with a -2.5 handicap, which is available at 11/10.
Jonny Clayton v Nathan Aspinall
Arguably the biggest tie of the night sees fourth-placed Jonny Clayton go up against fifth-placed Nathan Aspinall – with victory for the former enough to cement his place in next week playoffs. In what pretty much amounts to a shootout between the pair – although Aspinall additionally needs to progress to the final should he win here to qualify for the playoffs – the stakes couldn’t be any higher for a quarter-final matchup.
Clayton starts as the 8/11 favourite to win and book his spot in London next week but should be wary of his opponent on Thursday, particularly as Aspinall is the most recent of the two to triumph in a Night – tasting victory in Rotterdam four weeks ago by beating Gerwyn Price 6-4 at the Rotterdam Ahoy. The Asp is the slight underdog at 11/10 in what, on paper, is likely to be the most closely contested quarter-final of the evening.
Michael Smith v Dimitri Van den Bergh
World Champion Michael Smith is undoubtedly the most in-form player on the tour at the minute, winning his third consecutive Night last week in Sheffield by beating Gerwyn Price 6-3 in the final. Bully Boy is now joint with Gerwyn Price for Nights won on four and is second in the overall standings having already qualified, but he’ll want to strong together some form before next week’s all-important playoffs. He starts as the 4/11 favourite for this matchup – the smallest price out of all the quarter final contenders – and 3/1 to win his fourth consecutive Night.
Dimitri Van den Bergh finds himself second bottom of the table only to Peter Wright, having also failed to win any of the previous 15 Nights throughout the competition thus far. He’s failed to get out of the quarter-finals stage in seven of the last three weeks and won’t be troubling the playoff matches next week in London. Rather, The Dream Maker will be playing for pride in Aberdeen on Thursday, but will have to overcome odds of 21/10 to advance to the semi-finals of this one. Given the Dutchman’s current form, it probably isn’t worth the punt, so backing Michael Smith in the -2.5 handicap market again at 11/10 is probably the wisest choice here.
Michael van Gerwen v Chris Dobey
MVG is the latest game of Thursday’s quarter finals, with the Dutchman perhaps surprisingly only third in the standings as we approach the conclusion of the tour. Van Gerwen has won three Nights out of 15 and has already qualified for next week’s playoffs, but will want to make a statement ahead of those fixtures in London having not won a Night in 10 attempts. He starts Thursday’s matchup as the clear 2/5 favourite to progress to just his second semi-final in five Nights.
Chris Dobey is another player who won’t be troubling next week’s playoff places, but unlike Peter Wright and Dimitri Van den Bergh, ‘Hollywood’ does have one title to his name from 15 weeks – triumphing 6-5 in the very first night in Belfast back in February against none other than his opponent in Thursday’s semi-finals. Much has changed since then and Dobey finds himself the firm 19/10 outsider for this one, though he’ll be encouraged by the fact he’s reached the semi-finals of the past two Nights – albeit against much inferior opposition to Mighty Mike.
