The coronation will have to wait. The second night of the Premier League, when Michael van Gerwen claimed the spoils by defeating Luke Littler in the decider, felt like a self-contained epic. We both started out on his 57th visit, but when we came back he was on his 180th visit. Both players missed darts in the match. The 80-year-old Littler slipped two darts on his signature double 10, but in the end those were the margins.
Perhaps for Littler, winning the inaugural Premier League event in the city that gave the world the doner kebab was simply too good to be true. But here again, the emergence of a precocious 17-year-old was proof that he was pushing everyone to a new level of quality and nerve. Van Gerwen averaged 107 points in his semi-final win over Michael Smith, which is typical of Van Gerwen these days, but he has never been this good. And on a night when all the matches ended 6-4 or 6-5, van Gerwen’s victory was largely due to luck and tenacity.
The very nature of the Premier League, a Byzantine round-robin ab-absurd format where everyone plays everyone and then everyone plays everyone, makes it difficult to create a compelling narrative. Last year, Van Gerwen’s victory, Gerwyn Price’s continued excellence and Michael Smith’s late breakthrough were all but phantoms in terms of foreshadowing how this year would pan out. found. However, just a few weeks into the new season, there is one thing we can say with confidence. The child may be beaten.child intention Be beaten. But right now no one on the planet can play darts better than him.
And strangely enough, the child’s arrival seemed to ease everyone else’s tension. Tonally and texturally, there’s something really fresh and exciting about the sport right now. There were loud cracks and backslaps on stage, and a few more shots in the interview room. Players are united in their loyalty to their new teenage ruler. They think about the ratings and the buzz and the rising prize money and the rising tide of purple and yellow that lifts all boats. They are not thinking about the trophies they will lose to him, at least not yet.
As usual, a bouquet of chatter and comments arrived from the other world. Last week, former world number one Peter Manley warned Littler to cut his weight to prolong his career. “To me, Ritter just looks like a big unit,” he told the Daily Star. “If he’s not careful and doesn’t take care of himself, he won’t last long because of that. And he won’t look good either. You want to look good.” All of us, 17 I wish I could make a 61 year old kid look as good as a fat 61 year old man.
Meanwhile, the traveling circus goes on. You won’t have time to go to the Brandenburg Gate or the Gropius Bau Museum. From Berlin, he will fly directly to Wigan, where Littler will take part in his first ranking event of the season on Monday. And so far it is working like a dream, or as if working in a dream. Once again, the Germans showed up in droves, clinging to the guardrail to catch a glimpse of this strange new darter. In a way, the obsession with darts here is another example of the general German culture’s fascination with all things British, from Monty Python to Phil Collins to Eric Dyer. They sing “Stand Up If You Love The Darts.” They sing Kolo Thure songs. Next they will whistle at the pitcher.
Rob Cross was Littler’s first scalp, losing 6-5 in the deciding leg after fighting back bravely from a breakdown. Humphries had a chance in a thrilling semifinal, averaging 115 points at one point, but faltered in doubles and was tied at 5-5 by Littler. Once again, Humphries was in control in the deciding match, but Littler pulled an impressive 162 from his back pocket at 182, followed by a signature double-10. Since the world championship final a month ago, Littler has already faced Humphries three times and won all of them.
As for the rest, Peter Wright and Nathan Aspinall remain winless after losing their openers to Humphries and Van Gerwen respectively. These two are already seen as the most likely to struggle. Smith had a very entertaining quarter trading 170 finishes with Price before losing to Van Gerwen in the other semi-final.
