Premier League Darts 2025 Night 12 Preview and Order of Play | Star names lock horns in Liverpool
The Premier League Darts roadshow rolls into Liverpool for Night 12 on Thursday as the battle for play-off places intensifies.
Five nights of league fixtures remain before the top four players in the league table will progress to The O2 to compete for the sport’s most prestigious invitational title.
A sold-out M&S Bank Arena plays host to Night 12, with a repeat of the World Championship final among the stand-out quarter-final ties.
Defending champion Luke Littler continues to lead the way at the top of the table, seven points clear of nearest challenger Luke Humphries, and remains in pursuit of a record-breaking fifth weekly title of the campaign.
Littler claimed four nightly titles across the opening eight weeks of the competition but has not reached a final in any of his last three outings.
The reigning World Champion, who has suffered successive semi-final exits, continues to uphold a tournament average in excess of 103 and has taken his 180 tally to 122, six shy of last season’s total
Littler’s last Premier League meeting with MVG saw him land a sensational nine-darter en route to claiming the Night Seven title in Cardiff with a staggering 112.5 average in the final.
Van Gerwen heads to Merseyside riding the crest of a wave after securing his first ranking title of the year at the German Darts Grand Prix on Easter Monday.
The seven-time Premier League champion also landed a nine-darter during a memorable weekend in Munich and will be determined to pick up from where he left off as he bids for a first weekly title of the campaign to climb back into the play-off places.
An emotional reception awaits for home hero and Liverpool fan Stephen Bunting as he returns to the M&S Bank Arena for the first time in five years.
Bunting’s last appearance on this stage came as a Challenger in 2020, when he held Rob Cross to a 6-6 draw, and the duo face off again in a crucial clash for league points.
International Open winner earlier this month, Bunting has re-ignited his Premier League campaign after losing his first eight matches, claiming the Night Nine title before finishing runner-up in Rotterdam last week.
Though he remains bottom of the table, Bunting is just seven points adrift of the top four and will be hoping to utilise his home advantage to narrow the gap.
After a run of five consecutive semi-finals, Cross comes into this week on the back of three straight quarter-final defeats and has slipped to seventh in the table, albeit just three points adrift of the play-off spots.
The opening match of the night sees world number one Humphries take on in-form Nathan Aspinall.
Humphries already has one foot in the play-offs after picking up two nightly titles during the first four weeks and has also finished runner-up on a further three occasions.
However, he suffered a fourth quarter-final loss of the campaign last time out, averaging just 90.2 in a 6-3 defeat to Chris Dobey, and will be keen to resume normal service in Liverpool.
Humphries, last year’s beaten Premier League finalist, looks to avenge his 6-4 defeat to Aspinall in the final in Manchester a fortnight ago.
Aspinall’s memorable triumph on home soil saw him climb into the top four for only the second time this season and a quarter-final win over Gerwyn Price last week saw him rise to third position.
Price occupies fourth spot on 15 points by virtue of more nights won than Van Gerwen but has suffered quarter-final defeats in four of the last five weeks.
The Welsh star, who landed a nine-darter in Manchester two weeks ago, takes on a resurgent Dobey in what could prove to be a pivotal fixture in both of their campaigns.
Dobey became the sixth different winner of a weekly title when he triumphed in Rotterdam, climbing to sixth in the table and within three points of the play-off places.
The World Championship semi-finalist registered a trio of ton-plus averages at the Ahoy Arena and will be determined to replicate that clinical form against the man he defeated in the opening match of the tournament in Belfast back in February.
The action 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 2025 Night 12 Schedule
Thursday April 24
7pm-11pm
Quarter-Finals
Luke Humphries v Nathan Aspinall
Michael van Gerwen v Luke Littler
Rob Cross v Stephen Bunting
Gerwyn Price v Chris Dobey
Semi-Finals
Humphries/Aspinall v Van Gerwen/Littler
Cross/Bunting v Price/Dobey
Final
