Premier League Darts 2024 | Night Nine Belfast Preview and Order of Play
The Premier League Darts roadshow rolls into Belfast for Night Nine on Thursday as Luke Humphries aims to secure an historic fourth consecutive title.
Humphries has stormed clear at the top of the table at the halfway stage of the competition and heads to the SSE Arena on a nine-match unbeaten run.
The world number one and reigning World Champion has triumphed in Brighton, Nottingham and Dublin to stretch his lead to seven points and put one foot in the play-offs in his debut Premier League campaign.
Incredibly, Humphries has registered a ton-plus average in 15 of his 18 Premier League matches to date, averaging 102.5 for the tournament with the aid of 66 maximums.
No player has achieved four consecutive weekly titles since the inception of this format in 2022, and Humphries launches his quest to break new ground with a repeat of the World Championship final against Luke Littler.
Littler, who missed double two for a five sets to two lead over Humphries in the final at Ally Pally, heads to Belfast having suffered only his second quarter-final defeat of the campaign last week.
The Bahrain Masters and Belgian Open champion has dropped out of the top four for the first time and will renew his quest for an elusive first weekly title.
This will be the first meeting between the pair since Night Two in Berlin – where Littler made it back-to-back wins over his World Championship nemesis, having also prevailed 6-2 in Cardiff.
The winner of that showdown will take on either Michael van Gerwen or Michael Smith in the opening semi-final.
The duo have had contrasting fortunes in recent weeks, with Van Gerwen slumping to four consecutive defeats for the first time in Premier League history, leaving him looking over his shoulder in the race for the play-offs.
The reigning and seven-time Premier League champion had claimed a hat-trick of weekly titles to race into an early lead at the top of the table but has since been overhauled by Humphries and will be determined to get back to winning ways.
Smith, meanwhile, has finished runner-up in two of the last three weeks to climb back into the top four and also landed a nine-darter in the most recent Players Championship double-header.
Smith and Van Gerwen met in the opening two nights of this year’s Premier League, with both matches going to a deciding leg and both players claiming a win apiece.
Last year’s runner-up Gerwyn Price looks to pull further clear from the foot of the table when he comes up against 2020 finalist Nathan Aspinall.
Price ended a run of four consecutive quarter-final exits by edging out MVG in a deciding leg in Dublin last week, before going down 6-5 to Smith in the semi-finals despite another ton-plus average.
The Welshman is now five points clear of Peter Wright in eighth and six points adrift of the play-off places, with Aspinall one of three players sat on 13 points.
Aspinall picked up the Night Five title in Exeter and finished runner-up in Newcastle and Nottingham after failing to register a win in the opening three nights, including a 6-4 defeat to Price on opening night in Cardiff.
The fourth quarter-final sees former World Champions Rob Cross and Peter Wright collide as both aim to bounce back from early exits last time out.
Wright has won just one of his nine matches so far and is in danger of becoming cut adrift at the foot of the table should he fail to improve on that record in Belfast.
Despite being thrashed 6-1 by Humphries in Dublin, Wright will be encouraged by his recent upturn in form, having averaged above 96 in each of his last three Premier League fixtures.
Cross is bidding to avoid a third straight quarter-final defeat, with last week’s narrow 6-5 loss to Aspinall seeing him drop to sixth in the table.
The Night Five finalist faces Wright for the first time since the opening night – where he prevailed 6-3 with an average of 93 to the Scot’s 83.
Night Nine of 2024 Premier League Darts gets under way from 7pm BST, with all matches to be contested over the best of 11 legs.
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Premier League Darts 2024 Night Nine Schedule
Thursday March 28
Quarter-Finals
Luke Humphries v Luke Littler
Michael Smith v Michael van Gerwen
Nathan Aspinall v Gerwyn Price
Rob Cross v Peter Wright
Semi-Finals
Humphries/Littler v Smith/Van Gerwen
Aspinall/Price v Cross/Wright
Final
