Preview: Premier League Darts Night Two – Antwerp
Littler vs Humprhies
The first quarter-final sees the battle of the Luke’s as the world number one takes on the world number two.
Luke Littler will be looking to pick up his first points of the campaign after last week’s first-round defeat to Gian van Veen. Luke Humphries edged through his first-round tie over Gerwyn Price last week, relying on the Welshman missing match darts to seal a last-leg decider.
This is the first meeting between the pair since the Masters final with The Nuke winning 6-5 on sets to pick up his 11th PDC major title.
My prediction: Littler 6-4 Humphries
van Gerwen vs Rock
Van Gerwen’s evening starts with a quarter-final tie against Josh Rock. Rocky fell to a 6-2 defeat via Jonny Clayton on debut at Newcastle last week. The current World Cup champion will be wanting to pick up his first points as soon as possible but faces a tough task in a rejuvenated van Gerwen.
The Green Machine has already picked up more nightly wins then he did the whole of the last campaign and will be hungry for back-to-back nightly wins.
My prediction: Van Gerwen 6-3 Rock
Clayton vs Bunting
The Ferret takes on the Bullet in the third fixture in Antwerp. Clayton will be looking to build on the two points he picked up on Tyneside, whilst for Bunting, he’ll want to start his season as soon as possible after failing to pick up a single point until night nine last season.
Bunting took a 2-0 lead over van Gerwen in Newcastle only for the Dutchman to win the next six legs.
My prediction: Clayton 6-4 Bunting
Price vs van Veen
In the final quarter-final, last week’s runner-up Van Veen takes on the Iceman. Van Veen saw off Littler and Clayton for a spot in the final on debut but failed to overcome fellow Dutch international Van Gerwen.
Price led Humphries through the whole of the game up until the last-leg decider where he missed match darts and Cool Hand capitalised. The pair have met nine times with the Welsh man winning eight of the nine meetings however van Veen whitewashed the Iceman 6-0 in European Tour 11.
My prediction: Price 6-4 Van Veen
