The Premier League of Darts reaches Sheffield on Thursday night with one job left in the league phase: sort out who finishes third and who finishes fourth before finals night at the O2. The play-off spots are already locked, but the last step in the table still matters because it decides the semi-final path.
That is why the search now is all about Angry Ginge and the standings around him, with Gerwyn Price, Gian van Veen, Jonny Clayton, Luke Littler, Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen all tied to the final-night picture. Clayton, who is already guaranteed second spot, will meet Stephen Bunting for the fifth time in the competition, while Price faces van Veen again in a repeat of last week’s semi-final. Littler takes on Josh Rock in the penultimate quarter-final tie, and Humphries meets Van Gerwen in the last first-round match of the night.
Clayton has won three of his four meetings with Bunting, though Bunting’s lone victory over him came in a whitewash in the Belfast semi-final, the same night he picked up his only nightly win. Price and van Veen have met six times this season, with Price winning four of those matches, but the 19-year-old has won two and remains unbeaten against him in this year’s Premier League. That clash is the one most likely to decide whether Price ends up third or fourth heading into the O2.
There is still a sting in the table that does not fit the clean picture. Rock is bottom despite being the only player to hit a nine-darter so far, and he has lost both of his Premier League meetings with Littler. It is a reminder that a highlight score does not buy points in a format built on nights, not moments.
Littler has already sealed first place for the third successive campaign, Humphries booked his place last week with his first nightly win of the campaign in Birmingham, and Van Gerwen is out for a second year in a row after winning only the opening night in Newcastle. Sheffield will not change who goes to the O2, but it will decide who gets the cleaner route there — and that is the last unanswered line of the league season.
