Premier League Darts 2024 | Night One Cardiff Preview and Order of Play
The 2024 Premier League Darts season commences in Cardiff on Thursday with a fascinating first set of fixtures.
The 17-week roadshow opens up at the Utilita Arena as the elite eight face off for the first £10,000 bonus of the campaign.
After back-to-back World Series events in Bahrain and Den Bosch, the sport’s star names head to the Welsh capital in search of a strong start to the Premier League season.
The ‘weekly knockout’ format has been retained for a third straight year, with Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals and a final held in one action-packed session.
As per Premier League tradition, the opening night features a repeat of the World Championship final, with Luke Humphries facing Luke Littler.
An historic encounter at Alexandra Palace last month saw Humphries recover from 4-2 down to defeat Littler 7-4 and become World Champion for the first time.
Less than a fortnight later, Littler made more history by claiming the Bahrain Masters title on his World Series debut, becoming the youngest winner of a senior PDC title just two days before his 17th birthday, and landing a first televised nine-darter in the process.
The teenage sensation then went on to reach the final of the Dutch Masters last weekend, defeating Humphries 6-5 along the way, before being narrowly denied back-to-back titles by Michael van Gerwen.
Littler becomes the youngest player to appear in the Premier League had not been born when the first two stagings of the event took place in 2005 and 2006.
Humphries, winner of four major titles since last October, saw his 20-match unbeaten run brought to an end by Gerwyn Price in the Quarter-Finals in Bahrain before Littler gained a modicum of revenge in the Dutch Masters.
The world number one joins ‘The Nuke’ in making his highly-anticipated Premier League debut and will be determined to get off to a winning start.
Meanwhile, a repeat of the 2023 World Championship final sees Michael van Gerwen begin the defence of his Premier League crown with a clash against Michael Smith.
Van Gerwen has proved the dominant force in the recent history of the Premier League, claiming the title on a record seven occasions and reaching the final of nine of his 11 appearances.
The world number two warmed up for this campaign in perfect fashion by winning the Dutch Masters on home territory in Den Bosch, defying a 106.7 average from Littler to prevail 8-6 in the final.
MVG finished third in last year’s Premier League table, claiming a hat-trick of weekly titles early in the campaign before going on to triumph on Finals Night, defeating Smith 10-8 in the play-offs.
Smith was denied this title by Van Gerwen in the 2018 final but ultimately gained revenge in last year’s World Championship with an unforgettable nine-darter along the way.
Bully Boy is embarking on his seventh Premier League campaign and enjoyed an impressive league phase in 2023, racking up four weekly titles and reaching a further three finals.
Gerwyn Price is aiming to go one better than his runner-up spot at The O2 last May, and the proud Welshman is set for another hero’s welcome on his return to the capital.
Price had not made it to the play-offs in four previous attempts, but stormed to the top of the table courtesy of four weekly titles and a further five finals last time out.
He went on to claim a second World Cup of Darts titles for Wales alongside Jonny Clayton, but the year ultimately ended in disappointment with a shock Third Round exit to Brendan Dolan at the World Championship.
His two recent World Series campaigns have both ended in Semi-Final defeats to Littler, and the pair could be on a collision course to meet in the Night One final.
Price kicks off with a tie against World Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall – making his fourth full-time Premier League appearance.
The world number four finished runner-up on his debut behind closed doors in 2020 and was a beaten semi-finalist the following year, before agonisingly missing out on the play-offs in 2023 by virtue of winning less weekly titles than Clayton.
The Asp comes into this year’s Premier League in a below-par run of form, having suffered an early exit to Ricky Evans at the World Championship, before a Quarter-Final defeat to Littler in Bahrain and a First Round exit at the hands of Danny Noppert in the Dutch Masters.
The opening fixture of the evening sees former Premier League finalists Peter Wright and Rob Cross go head-to-head.
Both players are looking to improve on below-par recent records in this competition and will be keen to put points on the board at the first time of asking.
Cross returns to the line-up for the first time since 2021, having finished runner-up in The Masters and the Grand Slam last year.
The 2018 World Champion finished ninth in his two most recent Premier League campaigns, suffering elimination at the halfway stage as a result, though his best run came in 2019 when he finished second in the table before losing out to MVG in the final.
Wright comes into the event as the rank outsider with the bookmakers following a torrid run of form dating back to last October.
The two-time World Champion secured his eighth major title at the European Championship but has won just two of his seven televised matches since and has failed to average above 94 in any of those fixtures.
Defeat to Jim Williams at the first hurdle at Ally Pally meant he ended the year as world number eight – his lowest end of season ranking in over a decade – and a 6-1 Quarter-Final thrashing to Smith in Bahrain was followed by a 6-2 humbling at the hands of Kevin Doets in Den Bosch with an average of just 81.6.
Wright has been an ever-present in the Premier League since 2014, notably finishing runner-up in 2017 after missing six championship darts, but was rooted to the bottom of the table last year after mustering just five wins in 21 matches.
Night One of 2024 Premier League Darts gets under way from 7pm BST, with all matches to be contested over the best of 11 legs.
Premier League Darts 2024 Night One Schedule
Thursday February 1
Utilita Arena, Cardiff
Quarter-Finals
Peter Wright v Rob Cross
Gerwyn Price v Nathan Aspinall
Michael van Gerwen v Michael Smith
Luke Littler v Luke Humphries
Semi-Finals
Wright/Cross v Price/Aspinall
Van Gerwen/Smith v Littler/Humphries
Final
Premier League Darts 2024 Night One Odds
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