Littler wins record fifth Premier League night

Teenager Luke Littler created more history by becoming the first player to win five nights in a Premier League season with a 6-4 victory over Michael van Gerwen in Birmingham.

The 18-year-old, who is the youngest world darts champion after his success in January, has also secured his place in the season-ending play-offs at O2 Arena on 29 May.

He won four nights in the opening eight weeks but had failed to reach the final in the past four weeks.

No player has won more than four nights since the 16-week league phase was introduced in 2022 with Jonny Clayton (2022), Gerwyn Price and Michael Smith (2023) and Littler, Luke Humphries and Van Gerwen (2024) all achieving that mark.

Littler spoke at the start of the evening about wanting to finish top of the league in order to secure the first semi-final at the play-offs, so that he would have a break before the final, and is now on track to achieve that.

He needed last-leg shootout wins over Stephen Bunting and Nathan Aspinall to reach the final but improved as the evening went on.

The world number two missed two darts at tops in the opening leg and that allowed Van Gerwen to break, before he missed double 16 in leg two after two stunning darts at bullseye.

Littler kept pace with Van Gerwen though and recovered the break in leg six, before breaking again in leg 10 to secure the win and avoid a final-leg decider.

He averaged 102.5 to Van Gerwen's 94.31 and was six from 13 on the checkouts.

World number one Humphries won two of the opening four weeks but has failed to win a night since.

He has lost in the final on four occasions since but he has also suffered five quarter-final exits and a 6-5 defeat against Gerwyn Price was the latest.

It was a scrappy affair at times, but 2024 world champion and Premier League runner-up Humphries still averaged 107.46 and had darts to win the first nine legs.

However, he struggled on the checkouts, taking out just five of 15 attempts, and that proved to be the difference as Humphries lost to Price again, having succumbed to the Welshman in the Liverpool final last week.

Bunting is still rooted to the bottom of the table after losing 6-5 to Littler in the quarter-finals.

The Liverpudlian led 4-2 with Littler averaging in the mid-80s as he used some new equipment.

However the teenager improved as the match went on and broke back in leg eight before seeing out the game with a last-leg shootout win.

Chris Dobey and Rob Cross' chances of reaching the play-offs were also dented with the pair losing 6-3 and 6-4 to Aspinall and Van Gerwen respectively.

Final

Luke Littler 6-4 Michael van Gerwen

Semi-finals

Luke Littler 6-5 Nathan Aspinall

Gerwyn Price 3-6 Michael van Gerwen

Quarter-finals

Luke Littler 6-5 Stephen Bunting

Nathan Aspinall 6-3 Chris Dobey

Luke Humphries 5-6 Gerwyn Price

Rob Cross 4-6 Michael van Gerwen

Premier League Darts is played across 16 initial weeks in the league stage with quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final each night.

Each of the eight players is guaranteed to face the other seven in the quarter-finals in weeks one to seven and 9-15, with week eight and week 16 fixtures done off the table. It means we will get fourth v fifth in Sheffield on the final league-stage night, with the play-off spots potentially on the line.

Players earn two points per quarter-final win, an additional point if they win their semi-final and five for winning the night.

The top four players after the group stage progress to the play-off night at London's O2 Arena on 23 May, with first facing fourth and second against third in a best-of-19-leg match. The final, which is the best of 21 legs, follows.

If players are level on points after the 16 weeks then places are decided by nights won and then matches won.

Thursday, 8 May - Leeds