Aspinall reaches play-offs and Littler sets record

Nathan Aspinall secured the final Premier League play-off spot while Luke Littler set a new seasonal points record in Sheffield.

Englishman Aspinall defeated Michael van Gerwen 6-2 in the quarter-finals to eliminate the seven-time champion.

Meanwhile, table-topping world champion Littler averaged more than 114 as he broke his own points record, reaching 42 after earning two in thrashing Stephen Bunting 6-1.

Aspinall, 33, had finished in fifth, one place below qualification, in the previous two seasons.

But he will join Littler, Luke Humphries and Gerwyn Price at the London finale on 29 May after beating Van Gerwen, the only player who could stop him going through.

The 36-year-old Dutchman, without a nightly win in the whole 2025 campaign, misses out on the play-offs for only the second time in 13 years of competing.

Every Thursday, the eight players go head-to-head in a straight knockout tournament. So, each player will be entered at the quarter-final stage, before moving to the semi-finals and then a final.

These matches are all played over the best of 11 legs (or games of darts).

Players take home points from each of these rounds. The winner of the night gets five points, the runner-up three points, and each semi-finalist wins two points.

All eight players are re-entered into the tournament for the next round on the following Thursday.

The players meet each other once at the quarter-final stage from weeks one to seven, and then again in weeks nine to 15. The matches in weeks eight and 16 are played based on position in the league at that point.

The four players at the top of the table by the end of night 16 qualify for the final play-offs, which take place on Thursday, 29 May.

Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Gerwyn Price and Nathan Aspinall are through this year.

The semi-finals of the play-offs are played over 19 legs, while the winner is crowned in a final match played across the best of 21 legs.