Michael Smith v Gerwyn Price LIVE: Final score in Premier League Darts after Luke Littler result
Smith beat Price in the final after Littler was edged out in the semi-finals on his Premier League Darts debut
Luke Littler picked up two points from his Premier League Darts debut after reaching the semi-finals in Cardiff, where he lost a thriller to eventual winner Michael Smith.
Earlier, Littler won a re-run of the World Darts Championship final against Luke Humphries in the quarter-finals, with a dominant 6-2 victory. He had double 15 to beat Smith in the deciding leg of their semi, but missed and his opponent took full advantage to book a place in the night’s final.
There, Smith comfortably beat home-crowd favourite Gerwyn Price 6-2 to scoop the £10,000 prize and a maximum five points.
The 16-night series will resume in Berlin next Thursday, before the top four go through to the play-offs at London’s O2 Arena in May.
Re-live the action from the Premier League tonight, and get the latest darts betting tips here.
Luke Littler braced for Premier League bow: ‘Pressure? I just do what I do best’
Luke Littler says he will just continue “to do what I do” as he prepares for his eagerly-awaited Premier League debut and the latest stage of a relentless playing schedule.
“It is how the calendar pans out. This is what I signed up for – a busy schedule all year long,” Littler said at a Premier League launch press conference in Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. “I just keep myself to myself – that is what I do and whatever routines I do.
“When I was going to the airport for Bahrain I said to my mum that I just wanted 10-20 weeks off, please, but the schedule is just crazy. I know when I get a day off, I just make the most of it, and I have always said once I get into the venue, that is when I am in the zone.
“I’ve seen quite a few people have said, ‘Will the pressure get to him?’ But I just do what I do, do what I do best and throw my darts in the board. I don’t really want to practise at home, because once I get a day off I don’t want to be spending hours and hours on the board, so I spend hours and hours on my Xbox instead.”
Luke Littler braced for Premier League bow: ‘Pressure? I just do what I do best’
The 17-year-old will take on World Championship final conqueror Luke Humphries in Cardiff on Thursday
Man United star Harry Maguire impresses in darts challenge against Luke Littler
Harry Maguire impressed his Manchester United teammates during a darts challenge - but he was no match for Luke Littler.
The 17-year-old sensation faced off with his football heroes during a showdown at their training ground.
Maguire and Christian Eriksen had nine darts each to score as high as possible and after a treble 20 early on, the defender finished with 171. Eriksen lagged a bit behind, managing 136 across nine darts.
The pair were blown away by Littler, though, who wiped their scores out with just three darts.
Luke Littler faces new test inside travelling circus of Premier League Darts
Less than a month after they met in the World Championship final, Luke Littler meets Luke Humphries again tonight in Cardiff for what will be an intriguing Premier League Darts debut for both, for very different reasons.
Humphries arrives as the new world No 1 and a world champion, having been rejected from the Premier League last year. He took that to heart and vowed to prove wrong that decision by the sport’s powers, and over the course of a stunning autumn and winter he did exactly that.
But much like their world final, the spotlight will shine brightest on his opponent. Littler is already the biggest star in darts with more than a million followers on Instagram. More than 4 million people tuned into their final on Sky Sports, making it more popular than any day during the Ashes or the Ryder Cup. It is no wonder darts’ lucrative new star was immediately invited to the Premier League, despite being the world No 31, up against players much higher in the rankings.
How Littler copes with the Premier League will be fascinating, and yet all the signs suggest that this is not a young man who is ever fazed.
Luke Littler faces new test inside travelling circus of Premier League Darts
Littler has cruised through to successive finals barely needing any practice, but now faces the four-month grind of the Premier League as the new face of his sport
Tonight’s fixtures
Each mini-tournament sees four quarter-finals, two semi-finals and a final played. The quarter-finals for each night have already been decided.
Night One, Thursday February 1 - Utility Arena, Cardiff
Quarter-Finals and estimated start times:
- Peter Wright v Rob Cross - 7:10pm
- Gerwyn Price v Nathan Aspinall - 7:40pm
- Michael van Gerwen v Michael Smith - 8:10pm
- Luke Littler v Luke Humphries - 8:40pm
Premier League Darts schedule
The 16 events will take the eight players around the UK and to Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, before the top four meet in London for the play-offs in May.
- February 1: Premier League, Night One - Cardiff (Utilita Arena)
- February 8: Premier League, Night Two - Berlin (Mercedes-Benz Arena)
- February 15: Premier League, Night Three - Glasgow (OVO Hydra)
- February 22: Premier League, Night Four - Newcastle (Utilita Arena)
- February 29: Premier League, Night Five - Exeter (Westpoint)
- March 7: Premier League, Night Six - Brighton (The Brighton Centre)
- March 14: Premier League, Night Seven - Nottingham (Motorpoint Arena)
- March 21: Premier League, Night Eight - Dublin (3Arena)
- March 28: Premier League, Night Nine - Belfast (The SSE Arena)
- April 4: Premier League, Night 10 - Manchester (AO Arena)
- April 11: Premier League, Night 11 - Birmingham (Utilita Arena)
- April 18: Premier League, Night 12 - Rotterdam (Rotterdam Ahoy)
- April 25: Premier League, Night 13 - Liverpool (M&S Bank Arena)
- May 2: Premier League, Night 14 - Aberdeen (P&J Live)
- May 9: Premier League, Night 15 - Leeds (First Direct Arena)
- May 16: Premier League, Night 16 - Sheffield (Utilita Arena)
- May 23: Premier League Play-Offs - London (The O2)
How to watch the Premier League Darts?
Viewers in the United Kingdom can watch every night of Premier League action on Sky Sports. Night One is on Thursday, 1 February live from the Utilita Arena, Cardiff on Sky Sports Mix and Sky Sports Main Event from 7pm GMT. Subscribers can stream the action via Sky Go.
If you’re travelling abroad and want to watch major sporting events, you might need a VPN to unblock your streaming app. Our VPN round-up is here to help and includes deals on VPNs in the market. Viewers using a VPN need to make sure that they comply with any local regulations where they are, and also with the terms of their service provider.
Who is playing in the Premier League?
Eight players are invited to take part in the Premier League – the top four players on the Order of Merit after the World Championship and four further players chosen as wildcards by the PDC, darts’ governing body.
Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen, Michael Smith and Nathan Aspinall qualified automatically, with the PDC then giving wildcards to Luke Littler, Michael Smith, Peter Wright and Rob Cross.
What is the Premier League Darts?
One of the sport’s most popular events, the Premier League Darts sees eight of the world’s best players invited to compete in a mini tournament every Thursday evening, with each leg taking place in a different city around the UK and western Europe.
Every match is best-of-11 legs and each result contributes to an overall league table, with the winner getting five points, the runner-up three points and the two losing semi-finalists two points. The top four players after 16 rounds heading to the Premier League play-offs at the O2 Arena in London on 23 May, where an overall champion will be crowned.
Premier League Darts
Welcome along to live coverage of Premier League Darts, as 17-year-old sensation Luke Littler makes his debut in the event up against the new world champion, Luke Humphries, in a re-run of their world final a month ago.
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