Michael van Gerwen again the best on Premier League evening in cold Exeter: ‘The PDC has reneged’ | Sport

“I’m at the top and I haven’t even played my best game yet,” said Van Gerwen in the run-up to the fifth Premier League evening in Exeter. Mighty Mike not seeing his best game, but still he won a Premier League night for the second time in a row. Clayton, who played his first Premier League final of the year, could not really give the league leader a hard time in the final battle.

Afterwards it was also about the temperature in Exeter. Players were constantly warming their hands and Van Gerwen had also suffered from this, he said afterwards in front of Viaplay’s camera. “The PDC has simply reneged. I arrive here at four o’clock and something is done about it just before seven o’clock, that’s just too late. It’s the same here every year, it’s just cold here. You know that and then you have to do something about it. They (the PDC, ed.) may not recognize it, but it is the truth.”

Thanks to Thursday’s win, Van Gerwen is firmly at the top of the Premier League. The Dutchman now has fifteen points after five match evenings. This is followed by Michael Smith and Nathan Aspinall with only nine points. “Two weeks ago I only had five points, now fifteen. You should never write someone off in the Premier League because things can go that fast. It’s always nice to be at the top with six points more than the number two, but that has to be more. I’m not throwing fantastic again, but I’m throwing well at the right moments,” said Van Gerwen, who immediately goes on to the UK Open, which starts on Friday.

Van Gerwen reached the final by beating Nathan Aspinall and Gerwyn Price. Mighty Mike was 6-4 too strong for Aspinall in the semi-finals, who had plenty of chances to hurt the Dutchman. The Asp failed to do so and had to watch Van Gerwen reach the final of the Premier League evening in Dublin, just like last week.

In the quarter final against Gerwyn Price, Van Gerwen won 6-3. The duel between Van Gerwen and Price was the final in Dublin last week. Then Van Gerwen conceded seven match darts, but the Dutchman won. And this time too, Van Gerwen emerged as the winner, despite a disastrous third leg.

With a 1-1 score, Van Gerwen missed no fewer than ten doubles in a leg. Price didn’t fare much better with seven missed doubles, but the Welshman did eventually throw out double twos. Price then ran out to a 3-1 lead, but then Van Gerwen again showed that he was extremely strong mentally. He won five legs in a row and qualified for the duel with Aspinall, who was too strong for world champion Michael Smith in his quarter-final.

Quarterfinals:
Michael van Gerwen – Gerwyn Price 6-3
Nathan Aspinall – Michael Smith 6-3
Dimitri van den Bergh – Chris Dobey 6-3
Jonny Clayton – Peter Wright 6-5

Semi-finals:
Michael van Gerwen – Nathan Aspinall 6-4
Dimitri van den Bergh – Jonny Clayton 2-6

Final:
Michael van Gerwen – Jonny Clayton 6-3