Premier League Darts 2023 | Night Seven Nottingham Preview and Order of Play
Premier League Darts visits Nottingham for Night Seven of the competition on Thursday as Michael van Gerwen looks to make it four weekly titles in a row.
The seventh of 16 weekly knockouts sees the eight stars face off at the Motorpoint Arena in pursuit of points towards the league table, as well as the £10,000 weekly winner’s bonus.
Reigning champion Van Gerwen became the first player since the introduction of the new format last year to claim a hat-trick of weekly titles as he triumphed in Liverpool to extend his lead at the top of the table to eight points.
The world number three heads to the East Midlands in the midst of a nine-match unbeaten run and already looks to have one foot in the play-offs with the tournament yet to reach the halfway mark.
Van Gerwen thrashed rival Peter Wright 6-1 in last week’s Semi-Finals and the pair will lock horns again in the Quarter-Finals this time around as top faces bottom in the standings.
Wright got off the mark at the sixth time of asking as he ended his winless start to the campaign by edging past Gerwyn Price in a deciding leg in last week’s opener.
That, however, was followed by an average of 91.8 in a crushing Semi-Final defeat, meaning ‘Snakebite’ left Merseyside with two points to his name and remains rooted to the foot of the table.
Wright, who was famously beaten by MVG in the 2017 Premier League final after missing six darts for the title, opted to skip the weekend’s Players Championship double-header and will be hoping for a return to top form in Nottingham.
Meanwhile, Welsh World Cup team-mates Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton go head-to-head with both bidding to establish themselves as play-off contenders.
Price has suffered back-to-back Quarter-Final defeats with sub-90 averages since squandering seven darts to clinch the Night Four title in Dublin, leaving him holding on to fourth spot with eight points.
The 2021 World Champion, who is yet to appear in the Premier League play-offs, has the lowest tournament average (94.2) of the field and is facing Clayton for the first time in this year’s competition following back-to-back wins over ‘The Ferret’ in the World Series in January.
Clayton is one of only two players yet to have featured in the top four since the opening night, having reached the Semi-Finals in Glasgow and Dublin before losing out in the final in Exeter.
The 2021 champion was soundly beaten 6-2 by Van Gerwen last week and will be keen to kick-start his season, having finished top of the league phase in 2022.
World Champion Michael Smith looks to consolidate second spot in the table by challenging for his second weekly title of the campaign.
Smith, winner of Night Three in Glasgow, has battled through injury and illness in recent weeks and was narrowly denied glory last time out, going down 6-4 to MVG in the final with a 99 average.
The world number one starts out against reigning Masters champion Chris Dobey – who prevailed 11-7 in the Semi-Finals of that particular event in January.
Dobey made a dream start to his debut Premier League campaign by claiming glory on the opening night in Belfast last month but has since suffered five consecutive defeats despite registering ton-plus averages in three of those matches.
The opening Quarter-Final tie sees recent UK Open semi-finalist Dimitri Van den Bergh take on 2019 UK Open champion Nathan Aspinall.
Both players have made a solid start to life back in the Premier League but remain in pursuit of their first weekly title.
Aspinall occupies third position on eleven points after four Semi-Final runs and a runner-up spot in Cardiff but has the lowest checkout success rate (33%) of the field.
Van den Bergh stormed to a 6-1 victory with a 105.7 average and five 180s when the pair met in the Semi-Finals in Glasgow, before losing out to an imperious Smith in the final.
The Belgian number one has seven points to his name and has been the most efficient double hitter of the pack so far with a 46.4% strike rate.
Night Seven of 2023 Premier League Darts gets under way in Nottingham from 7pm GMT, with all matches to be contested over the best of 11 legs.
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Premier League Darts 2023 Night Seven Schedule
Thursday March 16
Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham
7pm-10.30pm
Quarter-Finals
Dimitri Van den Bergh v Nathan Aspinall
Jonny Clayton v Gerwyn Price
Peter Wright v Michael van Gerwen
Chris Dobey v Michael Smith
Semi-Finals
Van den Bergh/Aspinall v Clayton/Price
Wright/Van Gerwen v Dobey/Smith
Final
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