Luke Littler follows victory in Belfast with another in Manchester to move top of Premier League table, above Luke Humphries; Gerwyn Price hits nine-dart finish during semi-final win over Michael Smith - watch Week 11 on Thursday April 11, live on Sky Sports from 7pm
Friday 5 April 2024 11:41, UK
Luke Littler moved top of the Premier League Darts table with his second nightly win in a row as he stopped Gerwyn Price from following a nine-dart finish with his maiden victory of the season.
Littler, 17, backed up his triumph in Belfast last week with another in Manchester on Night 10, defeating Michael van Gerwen 6-3 in the quarter-finals, Nathan Aspinall 6-4 in the semis and then Price 6-3 in the final.
The youngster is now onto 23 points for the campaign, one clear of world No 1 and reigning world champion Luke Humphries, with Aspinall (18 points) and Van Gerwen (17 points) rounding out the play-off spots with six weeks of the regular season to come.
Price, in seventh place, is seven points adrift of Van Gerwen but will feel he can push for the top four after a stellar evening in Manchester - the final against Littler aside - in which he pinned a nine-darter while beating Michael Smith 6-3 in the last four.
The Iceman had earlier defeated rock-bottom Peter Wright 6-4 in a high-quality quarter-final, with Wright beaten despite averaging almost 110 and hitting each of the doubles he attempted.
The Premier League heads to Birmingham for Night 11 next Thursday, with Littler to play Rob Cross, Price to face Smith, Van Gerwen to meet Aspinall and Wright to tackle Humphries.
Speaking after his victory, Littler told Sky Sports: "I have definitely settled into the Premier League. The first five to six weeks I won my first game and then lost, but winning in Belfast last week gave me a lot of confidence.
"There are still a lot of weeks to go, so I have to keep plugging away and getting points and I am sure I will make the play-offs."
Sky Sports' Wayne Mardle says Littler - who has picked up an army of fans since reaching the final of the World Championship at Alexandra Palace in January - is changing the way he thinks about darts, saying the teenager breaks with convention.
One such example was when Littler completed a 131 checkout against Aspinall with two double tops.
Mardle said: "I have watched, played and been involved in darts for way too long and Luke coming along and doing what he is doing has changed my opinion about how things should be done.
"Darts is all about patterns but he doesn't care about patterns and goes his own way. He doesn't care if someone says 'don't do that'.
"When someone is good enough to do that, you realise it is not a problem. He has opened my eyes. You don't need to stick to convention.
"He is going to change the game by doing it. The kids and adults will learn from him. There are no negatives."
Littler beat Van Gerwen in the evening's second quarter-final, a game in which both players were far from their best.
Van Gerwen rallied from 3-0 down to 3-3 but then stumbled to defeat and has now won just one of his seven Premier League matches since securing three nightly victories in row in February, in Berlin, Glasgow and Newcastle respectively.
Aspinall, a crowd favourite as he hails from nearby Stockport, overcame Cross 6-3 in the opening quarter-final, after he headed to the oche amid a spine-tingling rendition of his walk-on theme, Mr Brightside.
The Asp could not get past Littler, whose eye-catching 131 checkout with back-to-back double tops was followed by a superb 136 finish.
Price produced the moment of the night, though, hitting the first nine-darter of the season and his third in the Premier League after nailing two in Belfast in 2022.
Smith was on the receiving end of Price's moment of magic, having reached the semi-finals by defeating an out-of-sorts Humphries 6-3 in the quarters.
Humphries could not replicate the sort of form that saw him demolish Van Gerwen 8-1 in the final of the German Grand Prix over the extended Easter weekend, with Smith prevailing after overcoming a lurgy that had hit him earlier in the week.
Smith is fifth in the standings on 15 points, two behind the struggling Van Gerwen.
Premier League Darts continues on Thursday April 11, in Birmingham. Watch live on Sky Sports Action and Sky Sports Arena from 7pm. Stream darts and more through NOW.
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