Michael van Gerwen is on a roll. The darts player from Vlijmen also won the sixth round of the Premier League darts on Thursday evening. He beat reigning world champion Michael Smith in the final. ‘MVG’ also showed itself to be the strongest in this darts competition in the two rounds before this, in which the eight best darts players of the PDC association participate.
Van Gerwen started the round in Liverpool with a nice 6-2 win over Welshman Jonny Clayton. Subsequently, former world champion Peter Wright also had to believe it. The Scot was put aside 6-1 by ‘Mighty Mike’.
Wright still impressed with a nice 130 finish in the third put, but in the other innings the Scot had no answer to Van Gerwen’s play. In the seventh put ‘Snakebite’ had no fewer than seven chances to throw out to stay in the game. But they were not spent on him and then ‘MVG’ decidedly finished the game.
Rakely wrong
The final against Michael Smith – who had dealt with the Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh (6-3) and Nathan Aspinall (6-2) on his way to the final – was very exciting. Van Gerwen broke the reigning world champion in the third putbut he saw the Englishman level again a short time later thanks to a nice 111 finish and a twelve dart finish.
A subsequent eleven-dart finish even gave ‘BullyBoy’ a 4-3 lead. But that didn’t let ‘MVG’ sit on its own. De Vlijmenaar equalized, took the lead with a fourteen-darter and went on to win the game 6-4 after Smith played in the ninth put an arrow on bullseye narrowly missed. The double ten gave Van Gerwen his third consecutive victory in the Premier League. No one had ever done that before in this game format.
Well in the lead
“In a final against Michael Smith you have to be there, and I did,” said ‘Mighty Mike’ afterwards. “I think I played very well. I’m not where I want to be yet, but I’m winning my matches. When you see the rankings, I can’t really complain!”
Van Gerwen is in the lead in the Premier League after six rounds, eight points ahead of number two Michael Smith. Nathan Aspinall follows nine points behind ‘MVG’ and Gerwyn Price is fourth.
The next round will take place next Thursday in Nottingham. There Van Gerwen will meet Peter Wright in the first round.