Premier League Darts 2025 Night Eight Preview and Order of Play | Tungsten titans collide on Tyneside

Premier League Darts touches down in Newcastle for Night Eight on Thursday as the league phase reaches the halfway stage.

The opening seven weekly titles have been shared between three players, with a number of records having already been broken.

Night Seven saw Luke Littler land the third nine-darter of this year’s tournament en route to claiming his third weekly title of the campaign to extend his lead at the top of the table.

The defending champion is now six points clear of nearest challenger Luke Humphries and now has the opportunity to equal last season’s tally of four weekly titles with only half of the league phase completed.

Littler had to wait until Night Nine to get off and running last season but has made a blistering start to the 2025 campaign, winning 13 of his 17 matches and averaging 104.4 for the tournament.

The reigning World Champion could surpass the 100-mark this week in terms of 180s for the event and opens up with a clash against struggling Stephen Bunting at the Utilita Arena.

Bunting set an unwanted record of becoming the first player to lose their opening seven matches since the introduction of this format in 2022 when he was beaten 6-2 by Chris Dobey in their basement battle last week.

That defeat leaves Bunting five points adrift at the foot of the table and in desperate need of a confidence-boosting win to stop the rot in his first Premier League campaign in a decade.

Meanwhile, local hero Dobey is set for another memorable reception when he takes to the stage in Newcastle for the third time.

Dobey made his debut here as a ‘Contender’ back in 2019 before returning as a full-time Premier League player in 2023, reaching the semi-finals on home soil.

The Bedlington ace ended a run of five consecutive quarter-final defeats by beating Bunting in Cardiff, only to average 82 in a 6-1 rout at the hands of Michael van Gerwen in the semi-finals.

Dobey faces the formidable task of taking on world number one Humphries for the third time in this year’s Premier League, with ‘Cool Hand’ having prevailed in the Night One final as well as the quarter-finals in Glasgow the following week.

Humphries, however, suffered a third straight quarter-final exit for the first time a week ago, having picked up two weekly titles and reached a further final across the opening four nights.

Last year’s Premier League runner-up will be keen to return to winning ways and spoil the party for the local favourite on Tyneside.

Elsewhere, seven-time Premier League champion Van Gerwen looks to go one better than last week’s runner-up spot in Cardiff and opens up with a showdown against Nathan Aspinall.

Van Gerwen had lost in five weekly semi-finals prior to his trip to the Welsh capital but was denied by nine-dart hero Littler – who averaged 112.5 in a thrilling final.

The Dutchman was then beaten by Ryan Joyce in the semi-finals of the European Darts Trophy in Gottingen on Sunday – an event which saw Aspinall go on to claim the crown.

That triumph for Aspinall marked his first European Tour silverware in a landmark success which secured a return to the world’s top eight and end a two-year wait for a PDC ranking title.

The Stockport star has reached two weekly finals so far this season and sits sixth in the table, four points adrift of the play-off places.

The quarter-final line-up also sees fourth-placed Price take on fifth-placed Rob Cross as the duo look to set up a meeting with Littler or Bunting.

Price has claimed glory on Nights Three and Six but will be eyeing revenge for last week’s 6-5 defeat to Cross on home soil in Cardiff.

A remarkable climax to that contest saw Price recover from 3-0 and 5-2 down to force a deciding leg, only for Cross to land an astonishing 170 checkout to seal victory.

Cross went on to lose in a fourth consecutive semi-final but remains in touching distance of the top four, while Price’s two nightly titles have come amid four quarter-final exits.

The action gets under way from 7pm GMT, with all matches to be contested over the best of 11 legs.

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Premier League Darts 2025 Night Eight Schedule

Thursday March 27

7pm-11pm

Quarter-Finals
Luke Littler v Stephen Bunting
Gerwyn Price v Rob Cross
Luke Humphries v Chris Dobey
Michael Van Gerwen v Nathan Aspinall

Semi-Finals
Littler/Bunting v Price/Cross
Humphries/Dobey v Van Gerwen/Aspinall

Final