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Three In A Row For Van Gerwen In The Premier League

Three In A Row For Van Gerwen In The Premier League

Alex Moss |

A Week In Darts – February 26, 2024 – Van Gerwen Wins Third Premier League Night In A Row

Newcastle hosted the latest night of Premier League Darts action, with Michael van Gerwen continuing his red-hot start to the season with another nightly title. Here’s our look back at all of last week’s darts action in the latest ‘A Week In Darts’…

PREMIER LEAGUE HAT-TRICK FOR VAN GERWEN

Michael van Gerwen extended his lead at the top of the Premier League with a third consecutive nightly win in Newcastle on Thursday night.

The fourth night of the season saw the reigning champion continue his dominant start to the campaign, as he picked up another five-point haul in the North East.

Van Gerwen averaged 107 in a 6-4 win against Gerwyn Price in his opening game, before surviving six match darts to edge past Luke Littler 6-5 in the semi-finals.

In the final, van Gerwen defied a 170 finish from Nathan Aspinall to prevail 6-4 and open up an eight-point lead at the top of the table.

“I think I played well in patches,” he reflected. “If you look at my game against Gerwyn Price I was fantastic, but against Luke and Nathan I could have made it easier for myself.

“That is darts sometimes. You don’t want to put yourself in difficult positions, but when you’re playing against the best players in the world, it’s going to be tense, it’s going to be awkward and you have to deal with that situation.

“My confidence is great. I want to battle, I want to perform and I want to show people what I’m capable of. Of course there is still more in the tank, but there is still a very long way to go.”

The Premier League roadshow continues in Exeter this Thursday, where van Gerwen will start his bid for another title against the world number one and world champion Luke Humphries in the quarter-finals.

DOUBLE FOR BARRY ON THE DEVELOPMENT TOUR

Keane Barry is the early leader of the Development Tour after picking up two titles on the opening weekend of the season in Milton Keynes.

The Irishman, who won his PDC tour card after finishing second on the 2020 Development Tour Order of Merit, was in fine form as he won two of the five tournaments held last week.

On Friday, the 21-year-old squeezed past last year’s Development Tour Order of Merit winner Gian van Veen 5-4 in the Event 2 final, before going back-to-back with a 5-0 thrashing of Sebastian Bialecki in the Event 3 decider the following day.

The 2024 season began with a title for Danny Jansen, as the Dutchman beat Owen Roelofs 5-4 in the Event 1 final, which saw him briefly sit at the top of both the Challenge and Development Tour Order of Merits.

The last two tournaments of the weekend were won by two other Dutch players, as tour card holders Jurjen van der Velde and van Veen shared the Event 4 and Event 5 titles.

Van der Velde whitewashed Leighton Bennett 5-0 in his deciding clash, whilst van Veen, a runner-up to Luke Littler in last year’s World Youth Championship final, got past Dylan Slevin by the same scoreline in the Event 5 finale.

The Development Tour resumes with Events 6-10 in Hildesheim, Germany on May 3-5.

DRAW FOR UK OPEN CONFIRMED

The draw for the opening rounds of the UK Open was confirmed last week, as ‘The FA Cup of Darts’ returns at Butlin’s Minehead with 158 players set to battle it out for the title.

The first three rounds of the tournament take place on Friday (March 1) and feature PDC tour card holders ranked 33 and below, along with the top players from last year’s Challenge and Development Tours, and the 16 winners of the Riley’s Qualifiers.

The pick of the first-round ties includes former Lakeside champions Jelle Klaasen and Scott Mitchell being in action, with Klaasen taking on New Zealand’s Haupai Puha and Mitchell facing off with teenager Leighton Bennett.

Following the conclusion of the third round on Friday afternoon, an open draw will be made live on the main stage for the fourth round, which is when the world’s top 32 enter the tournament, including Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler.

Andrew Gilding is the defending champion this weekend after his stunning 11-10 success against van Gerwen in last year’s final.

Pictures: PDC

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Alex Moss is a content creator for Darts Corner and the co-host of the Weekly Dartscast podcast. Alex co-founded the Weekly Dartscast in 2017 and has helped produce 350+ episodes of the podcast, with their list of previous guests on the show a who’s who in the world of darts.

Alex also writes content for the Darts Corner blog, including the weekly darts news round-ups and how-to guides.

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