Premier League Darts 2026 | Night Four Belfast Preview and Order of Play
Premier League Darts touches down in Belfast for Night Four on Thursday as the table begins to take shape.
The opening three nights of the prestigious invitational have produced three different winners, leaving the world’s top two ranked players currently situated outside the top four in the table.
A sold-out SSE Arena welcomes the elite eight this week as they vie for the £10,000 bonus and crucial league points in the race for the play-offs.
Josh Rock is set for a hero’s reception on home soil as he steps up to face European Champion and fellow Premier League newcomer Gian van Veen.
The duo’s start to the campaign could barely be more contrasting, with Van Veen having picked up six points after reaching two of the first three weekly finals, while Rock is yet to get off the mark.
World Championship finalist Van Veen finished runner-up on opening night in Newcastle, as well as last week in Glasgow, and will be keen to go one better and silence the Northern Irish faithful.
Van Veen’s blistering start to the year continued into the European Tour as he reached the final of the Poland Darts Open last weekend, landing a sensational nine-darter against Luke Littler, but only to come out on the losing end once again.
Northern Ireland’s World Cup champion Rock has suffered three consecutive 6-2 defeats to start his debut Premier League campaign but will be out to use his homecoming as a platform to kick-start his season.
Elsewhere, league leader Jonny Clayton faces another showdown with back-to-back World Champion Luke Littler.
The pair met in last week’s semi-finals, with Clayton romping to a 6-1 demolition of ‘The Nuke’ with a 101.3 average before going on to clinch the nightly title.
Clayton, the 2021 Premier League champion, has enjoyed a dream start to his Premier League return, picking up nine points, and was a semi-finalist at Players Championship 6 in Leicester on Wednesday.
Littler will be eyeing revenge after suffering his heaviest Premier League defeat last time out and has just one win to show from the opening three nights.
However, the world number one resumed normal service by scooping the season’s first European Tour silverware in Krakow on Sunday, including a 113.8 average in a 6-1 rout of Mike De Decker along the way.
Reigning Premier League champion Luke Humphries also bids to kick-start his campaign in Belfast as he takes on world number six Stephen Bunting.
Humphries has two wins from five matches so far, having rued missed match darts in deciding leg defeats to Littler and Van Veen in recent weeks.
The world number two, who picked up a trio of nightly titles last season, reached the semi-finals of the weekend’s Poland Open in a run which included a 6-1 thrashing of Bunting in the quarter-finals.
Bunting lost his opening eight matches of last year’s Premier League and will be determined to avoid reaching the halfway point of replicating that disastrous start once again.
The former Lakeside Champion has averaged just shy of 100 in his last two outings and remains in solid form, having finished runner-up at Players Championship 3 earlier this month.
The evening’s other quarter-final sees seven-time champion Michael van Gerwen face 2023 runner-up Gerwyn Price in a repeat of the Night Two final.
Price prevailed 6-3 on that occasion in Antwerp, but Van Gerwen has not featured since after withdrawing from last week’s trip to Glasgow for medical reasons.
The Dutchman, who claimed the Night One title in Newcastle, is still just a point adrift of top spot and returns to the oche after also sitting out the weekend’s Poland Darts Open.
Price has endured a mixed start to the campaign, with his victory in Belgium sandwiched between quarter-final defeats to Humphries and Clayton in Newcastle and Glasgow respectively.
However, the former World Champion warmed up for the trip to Belfast in perfect fashion by clinching the Players Championship 6 title 24 hours ago with an 8-1 rout of Andrew Gilding in the final and a string of ton-plus averages along the way.
The action gets under way from 7pm GMT, with all matches to be contested over the best of 11 legs.
WATCH PREMIER LEAGUE DARTS STREAMED LIVE HERE
18+ | Geo Restrictions may apply | Please Gamble Responsibly
Premier League Darts 2026 Night Four Schedule
Thursday February 26
7pm-11pm
Quarter-Finals
Luke Littler v Jonny Clayton
Stephen Bunting v Luke Humphries
Michael van Gerwen v Gerwyn Price
Gian van Veen v Josh Rock
Semi-Finals
Littler/Clayton v Bunting/Humphries
Van Gerwen/Price v Van Veen/Rock
Final
