Premier League Darts 2024 | Night Three Glasgow Preview and Order of Play
BetMGM Premier League Darts heads to Glasgow for Night Three on Thursday as the table begins to take shape.
A fascinating first two nights of action have featured 13 ton-plus averages, 82 maximums and two 170 checkouts, with Michael Smith and Michael van Gerwen opening their weekly title accounts for the season.
The roadshow heads north of the border to the OVO Hydro for what promises to be another night of high quality knockout competition.
Having claimed the Night One title in Cardiff and reached the Semi-Finals last week, Smith leads the early standings on seven points and will look to add to that tally when he faces Rob Cross in the opening match of the evening.
Smith was denied in a deciding leg by Van Gerwen in Berlin last Thursday and will be aiming to bounce back from a disappointing ProTour campaign earlier this week which saw him suffer a Second Round and First Round exit in Wigan.
Cross, back in the Premier League for the first time since 2021, has two points to his name so far following a Semi-Final defeat in Cardiff and a Quarter-Final exit to Luke Littler in Berlin.
The former World Champion suffered successive Second Round exits on the ProTour in midweek and will be keen to put points on the board here in order to keep pace with the early leaders.
Arguably the stand-out Quarter-Final tie sees man of the moment Luke Littler take on last year’s Premier League runner-up Gerwyn Price.
Littler came agonisingly close to registering his first weekly title at only the second time of asking, but was left to rue two missed match darts in the final in Berlin.
The World Championship runner-up enjoyed a dream debut on the ProTour on Monday, hitting a nine-darter and going on to claim the Players Championship 1 title.
Littler has won both of his previous meetings with Price, starting at the Bahrain Masters en route to taking the title, before prevailing 7-4 on his way to finishing runner-up at the Dutch Masters the following week.
A contrastingly turbulent start to the year for Price has seen him reach the Night One final on home soil in Cardiff, before withdrawing from The Masters and losing out 6-5 to Smith in last week’s opener despite an average of 104.
The Welshman then made headlines by forfeiting his Last 32 match with Brendan Dolan on the ProTour on Monday whilst trailing 4-2 in an apparent protest at the cold playing conditions.
Luke Humphries has also endured a difficult start to the campaign, with the reigning World Champion having won just four of 11 matches in all competitions so far this season.
The newly-crowned World Champion and four-time major winner has been beaten by Littler in both Premier League nights so far but registered his first points last time out courtesy of a 6-4 win over Wright with a 103.6 average.
The world number one was whitewashed 6-0 by Ian White in Monday’s Second Round in Wigan before suffering a shock First Round exit at the hands of Jurjen van der Velde on Tuesday.
Humphries will be determined to get back to winning ways in Glasgow and starts out against reigning World Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall.
Aspinall is one of two players yet to get off the mark in the early stages of the tournament, having lost 6-4 to both Price and Van Gerwen with averages of 89 and 94.
The 2020 Premier League runner-up reached the Semi-Finals of The Masters and made a bright start last week, leading MVG 4-1 but missing ten costly darts at doubles.
Defending champion Van Gerwen triumphed in Berlin for the second time in three years as he atoned for his Quarter-Final defeat on opening night.
Van Gerwen registered ton-plus averages in each of his three matches at the Mercedes-Benz Arena, landing 13 maximums in the process, and comes into Night Three fresh from a family break in Paris after opting out of the opening two Players Championships.
The Dutchman now comes up against home favourite Peter Wright in a repeat of the 2017 Premier League final.
Wright is bidding to climb off the foot of the table with a win in front of a partisan Scottish crowd and has shown signs of improvement over the past seven days.
The European Champion averaged above 94 for the first time this season during last week’s 6-4 loss to Humphries and warmed up for the trip to Glasgow with a fine run to the Semi-Finals of Tuesday’s Players Championship event.
That run included wins over compatriots Alan Soutar and Cameron Menzies, before bowing out to eventual champion Gary Anderson in a high quality contest.
Night Three of 2024 Premier League Darts gets under way from 7pm BST, with all matches to be contested over the best of 11 legs.
WATCH PREMIER LEAGUE DARTS STREAMED LIVE HERE
18+ | Geo Restrictions Apply | Gamble Aware
Premier League Darts 2024 Night Three Schedule
Thursday February 15
7pm-11pm
Quarter-Finals
Rob Cross v Michael Smith
Michael van Gerwen v Peter Wright
Nathan Aspinall v Luke Humphries
Gerwyn Price v Luke Littler
Semi-Finals
Cross/Smith v Van Gerwen/Wright
Aspinall/Humphries v Price/Littler
Final
