Littler wins record fifth Premier League night

With a 6-4 victory over Michael van Gerwen in Birmingham, Luke Littler, a teen, made history by becoming the first player to win five games in a Premier League season.

The 18-year-old, who won the youngest world darts championship after winning in January, will also be competing in the O2 Arena’s season-ending play-offs on May 29.

He had already made it to the final four weeks, but he had only managed four nights in the opening eight.

No player has won more than four nights since the 16-week league phase was introduced in 2022, with the exception of Littler, Luke Humphries, and Van Gerwen (2024), Jonny Clayton (2022), Gerwyn Price and Michael Smith (2023), and Gerwyn Price and Van Gerwen (2024).

Littler stated at the beginning of the evening that he needed a break before the final if he wanted to finish top of the league in order to reach the play-offs, and that he now has that goal in mind.

He improved as the evening progressed but needed victories in the final against Stephen Bunting and Nathan Aspinall in the last-second shootout.

Seven-time Premier League champion Van Gerwen broke in leg two after two stunning darts at bullseye, but the world number two missed two darts at tops in the opening leg.

However, Littler and Van Gerwen, who were in their second final of the year, regained the lead in leg six before breaking again in leg 10 to claim the victory and avoid a final-leg decider.

He was six from 13 at the checkouts, averaging 102.5 to Van Gerwen’s 94.31.

“I’m very happy,” he declared. It was anticipated that I would win the fifth nightly prize at some point, but it has only been a few weeks since I did so on a Thursday, Littler told Sky Sports.

“I’m nine points clear, so I’m very happy and confident that I’ll stay at number one.”

Humphries, the world’s number one, failed to win a night in the first two weeks, despite having won two of the previous four.

Since then, he has lost in the final four times, but he has also lost in the final five times, most recently 6-5 to Gerwyn Price.

Although it was a scrappy affair at times, Humphries, the 2024 world champion and Premier League runner-up, still managed to score 107.46 on the first nine legs.

He did, however, struggle on the checkouts, allowing only five of his fifteen attempts to come out, and Humphries lost to Price once more after being defeated by the Welshman in the Liverpool final last week.

After falling to Littler in the quarter-finals 6-5, Bunting is still firmly rooted at the bottom of the table.

Littler averaged in the mid-’80s as he used some new equipment, leading the Liverpudlian 4-2.

However, the teenager made improvements as the game progressed and broke through leg eight before capturing the victory in the final shootout.

Final

Michael van Gerwen 6-4 Luke Littler

Semi-finals

Nathan Aspinall 6-5 Luke Littler

Michael van Gerwen 3:3 Michael Price

Quarter-finals

Stephen Bunting 6-5 Luke Littler

Chris Dobey 6-3 Nathan Aspinall

Gerwyn Price 5-6 Luke Humphries

Premier League Darts is played in 16 league starts, with quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals on each night.

In the quarter-finals in weeks one through seven and nine through fifteen, with the eight and sixteen fixtures being eliminated from the table, each of the eight players is guaranteed to face the other seven. On the final league-stage night, Sheffield will play host to fourth-and-fifth place teams, with potential playoff spots also in the cards.

Players are awarded two points for each quarter-final victory, five for each semi-final victory, and five for each night’s victory.

In a best-of-19-leg competition, the top four players will advance to the play-off night on May 23 at London’s O2 Arena, with first facing first and second facing third. The best leg of the 21 legs is the final.

Leeds, 8 May, on Thursday, May 8.