Price picks up title in Premier League's Belgian debut

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Gerwyn Price celebrates winning night two of the Premier League darts in Antwerp

ByPaul Higham

BBC Sport Journalist

Gerwyn Price ended Michael van Gerwen's unbeaten start to the Premier League by claiming a 6-3 victory in night two's final in Antwerp.

Van Gerwen won the season opener in Newcastle last week and beat Luke Littler in the semis on his way to another final.

But the seven-time champion was no match for Welshman Price, who had come through two final-leg deciders before lifting the title in more comfortable fashion.

Littler had earlier opened the tournament's first visit to Belgium by edging a final-leg decider of his own against rival Luke Humphries.

For Price it was a welcome victory to confirm the fine form he had been in of late.

"I think I'm playing some of the best stuff I've played, I'm just not winning tournaments," Price told Sky Sports after his victory.

"There's no way I can't win a major, bigger Pro Tours, Europeans. Averages are just for show and if you play well on your darts and win matches you win tournaments. I'm going to get some."

The PDC Premier League visited Belgium for the first time in the competition's 21-year history, and the 10,000 darts fanatics inside the AFAS Dome were treated to plenty of thrills.

Littler beats Humphries on night of comebacks

The night started with a bang as the two biggest darts stars in the world played out a high-quality contest that went down to a final-leg decider.

Humphries and Littler both hit seven 180s and averaged over 102 and 105 respectively, but both were surprisingly poor on the outer ring - missing 28 doubles between them.

Humphries was the better player throughout, but at 4-1 up he started missing doubles badly, 17 in all by the end of the match, as Littler engineered an escape to make it five straight wins against his big rival.

Comebacks were a theme of the opening quarter-finals with all bar Van Gerwen's stroll against an out-of-sorts Josh Rock filled with excitement.

Stephen Bunting finished bottom of the table last year after failing to win a single match in the first eight weeks, but looked to have one sewn up when leading 4-0, only to watch Jonny Clayton reel off six straight legs to win 6-4.

And Price had to come from 3-1 and 4-2 down to beat Gian van Veen and his Wales World Cup team-mate Clayton both in 6-5 thrillers.

Premier League Darts night two results

Thursday, 12 February - FAS Dome, Antwerp

Quarter-finals

Luke Littler 6-5 Luke Humphries

Michael van Gerwen 6-2 Josh Rock

Jonny Clayton 6-4 Stephen Bunting

Gerwyn Price 6-5 Gian van Veen

Semi-finals

Littler 4-6 Van Gerwen

Clayton 5-6 Price

Final

Van Gerwen 3-6 Price

Premier League Darts table

Premier League Darts format and points system

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.