There was a shock even before the players competing in the 2021 PDC Premier League Darts
took to the oche when World Champion Gerwyn Price was ruled out of the event due to illness. The current UK Open Champion James Wade was invited to take his place at the last minute and duly dd so.
Wade has made many appearances in the Premier League and has won the event in the past and he was one of a number of players that managed to avoid defeat on what was the closest opening night of action in the tournament’s history.
We are going to take a look at how the opening five nights of action panned out in the Premier League last week before we then preview the remaining four nights of games left in Phase 1 of the tournament. These four games are played next week from Monday to Thursday (19th to 22nd April) with Thursday night being Judgement Night, when the bottom two players will be eliminated from the event ahead of Phase 2.
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Now, let’s take a quick check of how the first five nights of action unfolded, who were the big winners, who was the big loser, and why two rookie players in the tournament celebrated a special evening on Night 3 and Night 4 of the event.
Premier League Darts Results
Night One
- Nathan Aspinall 7-3 Glen Durrant
- Rob Cross 6-6 Jose De Souza
- Peter Wright 6-6 Jonny Clayton
- James Wade 6-6 Gary Anderson
- Michael van Gerwen 6-6 Dmitri Van den Bergh
Night Two
- Gary Anderson 7-5 Jose de Sousa
- Jonny Clayton 7-3 Glen Durrant
- Dmitri Van den Bergh 7-5 Nathan Aspinall
- Michael Van Gerwen 7-2 Peter Wright
- Rob Cross 7-3 James Wade
Night Three
- Rob Cross 3-7 Michael van Gerwen
- Glen Durrant 0-7 Dmitri Van Den Bergh
- Peter Wright 7-4 Gary Anderson
- Nathan Aspinall 7-4 James Wade
- Jose de Sousa 3-7* Jonny Clayton
Night Four
- Dmitri Van den Bergh 6-6 Peter Wright
- Jonny Clayton 3-7 Rob Cross
- Jose de Sousa* 6-6 Nathan Aspinall
- James Wade 7-3 Michael van Gerwen
- Gary Anderson 7-2 Glen Durrant
Night Five
- Gary Anderson 4-7 Jonny Clayton
- Peter Wright 7-5 Rob Cross
- Michael van Gerwen 6-6 Nathan Aspinall
- James Wade 7-3 Glen Durrant
- Dmitri Van den Bergh 3-7 Jose de Sousa
*Jonny Clayton achieved a 9-dart finish in his 7-3 win over Jose de Sousa on Night 3 of the tournament and then on the following night de Sousa also achieved the feat during his 6-6 draw with Nathan Aspinall.
After those 25 games on the first five nights of action, the Premier League table is as follows:
Premier League Table – After Night 5
- Jonny Clayton – 7pts (+7)
- Dmitri Van Den Bergh – 6 Pts (+5)
- Nathan Aspinall – 6 Pts (+5)
- Michael van Gerwen – 6 Pts (+5)
- Peter Wright – 6 Pts (0)
- Rob Cross – 5 Pts (+2)
- James Wade – 5 Pts (+1)
- Gary Anderson – 5 Pts (+1)
- Jose De Sousa – 4 Pts (-2)
- Glen Durrant – 0 Pts (-24)
It is certainly one of the closest tables in the history of the event with just three points between Jonny Clayton at the top and Jose de Sousa in ninth in the table. Reigning champion Glen Durrant has had a miserable time though as he is yet to pick up a point and seems destined to be eliminated from the event after Judgement Night.
However, with four sets of games still to go, nine players not only have a very realistic chance of reaching Phase 2, but also managing to do so by finishing top of the table, which makes the four nights next week so exciting for darts fans.
Premier League Phase 1 Remaining Fixtures
Night 6 – 19th April
- Nathan Aspinall v Peter Wright
- Jonny Clayton v Dmitri Van den Bergh
- Rob Cross v Gary Anderson
- Jose de Sousa v James Wade
- Glen Durrant v Michael van Gerwen
Night 7 – 20th April
- Glen Durrant v Jose de Sousa
- Rob Cross v Dmitri Van den Bergh
- Nathan Aspinall v Jonny Clayton
- Peter Wright v James Wade
- Michael van Gerwen v Gary Anderson
Night 8 – 21st April
- Rob Cross v Nathan Aspinall
- Gary Anderson v Dmitri Van den Bergh
- Michael van Gerwen v Jose de Sousa
- James Wade v Jonny Clayton
- Peter Wright v Glen Durrant
Night 9 – Judgement Night – 22nd April
- Jonny Clayton v Michael van Gerwen
- Glen Durrant v Rob Cross
- Jose de Sousa v Peter Wright
- Nathan Aspinall v Gary Anderson
- Dmitri Van den Bergh v James Wade
Usually from these sets of fixtures, I would pick out a couple of games that could have ramifications for the places at the top and bottom of the table. However, given how tight it is in the table at the moment, it is impossible to do that as every game has something resting on it.
It does look very much like we are going to go onto Night 9, Judgement Night, knowing that every game could well decide whether the loser is the player to join Glen Durrant out of the tournament, and even Durrant is not mathematically out of the running as yet.
It does promise to be a very exciting week of darts and literally anuthing could happen. Durrant does look likely to be eliminated, and the question is, who will join him on Judgement Night?
Picking who from the remaining nine players is a tough one but if pushed, I’d pick either Wade, due to the lack of preparation he had for this event, Rob Cross, whose form hasn’t been that great over the past 18 months or so, or de Sousa, who only picked up his first win on Night 5 of the tournament.
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