We're suitably in Robin Hood country for tonight's round of Premier League Darts as Nottingham hosts the super smashing great sixth round of matches.
Kicking off the evening is a rematch of a superb game from the 2014 Worlds between Michael Smith and Peter Wright. Bully Boy ran Snakebite close on that December night in 2013 having beaten Phil Taylor in the last 32, but it was the clown who would famously make the final. Smith lost for the first time last week while Wright's dismal performance in Leeds was nothing like him at all.
The World Grand Prix rematch follows as the winner in Dublin Daryl Gurney plays Australia's Simon Whitlock. Superchin's maiden major was defined by his incredible consistency on the outer ring, but his first PL campaign has been blighted by dropping wins on multiple occasions. The Wizard hasn't won in the PL since mid-February, so this would be the perfect time to do so.
Two more first-time major winners meet in the night's middle game with Champions League of Darts winner Mensur Suljovic facing reigning World Champion Rob Cross. The Gentle has won his last two while Voltage has been triumphant in his last three. The win is obviously more important for the Austrian as he's not
The Gerwe/yn derby is next with reigning PL champion Michael van (with an e) against Welsh rugger roidlet Price (with a y). MVG returned to his rightful place at the top last week, and considering the Iceman has never won against the Green Machine, their 13th meeting could see the 2017 UK Open runner-up 3 points adrift at the end of the night's play.
This year's UK Open champion Gary Anderson looks to extend an incredible 22 match unbeaten run against Raymond van Barneveld. Gando won back-to-back Players Championships at the weekend, but is in trouble in the PL having won just once. Barney picked up his first win in 3 last week, but will have to play at his peak to derail the Flying Scotsman.
Coverage starts from 7:00pm UK time on Sky Sports Action.
>Tonight's fixtures (7:00pm GMT start, all matches best of 12 legs) Michael "Snackpot 2.0" Smith v Snakeshite STRAYA v Daryl "Sweet C4-line" Gurney Gerwyn "Gurning" Price v MvGOAuTism Mensur "DIE MEISTER, DIE BESTEN" Suljovic Rob "BAuLDtism" Cross Rob "BAuLDtism" Cross Barney v Gary "Big Game Counter" Anderson
So as mentioned in the OP, there was another weekend of Pro Tour action, this time from Barnsley.
Friday night saw two Euro Tour qualifiers held, with that mad Scotsman Cameron Menzies making up big time for his failure to get a Tour Card by making the field for both of Saarbrucken and Graz's events, even hitting a 9-darter to beat Jamie Caven in the first qualifier! James Wade and Luke Humphries kept their ever-present 2018 ET appearances while it was another disaster for Adrian Lewis who failed to qualify for either event.
Saturday saw Steve West complain about Tytus Kanik's body odour following his first round loss to the Pole while Gerwyn Price whined about the state of Unicorn's dismal boards after he was turfed out by Joe Cullen. Although Gary Anderson nearly crashed out in the last 128, having to come from 5-1 behind to defeat Terry Jenkins, the most impressive displays came in the last 16 and the final, where he whitewashed both Rob Cross and Peter Wright; the former with a 109 average to the World Champion's 103 and
Sunday had Wright's woes continue as he averaged just 90 to lose to Danny Noppert in round 1; in fact, the top half of the draw saw only 4 of the 16 seeds make it past the last 128. Just one of them got to the semi-finals: Adrian Lewis, who had hoped to make up for Friday's disappointment but became the latest victim of Dutch youngster Jeffrey de Zwaan, who survived 3 match darts in the semi-final to make his second senior PDC final. In the bottom half, Dave Chisnall averaged 110 to beat Stephen Bunting in the QF, but crashed out to Gando in the SF. The final was a terrible affair, with JdZ averaging just 81 as he went down 6-2 to Gary's pedestrian 91 average.
Over in Seoul, the PDC Asian Tour held its first ever events, with Hong Kong's Royden Lam and Japan's Seigo Asada winning. The Saturday final saw Filipino unknown Noel Malicdem average 51 in the first leg, and then 167 in the second: youtube.com/watch?v=oVHc1XzkICY
If I ever go to a fancy dress party Im definitely going dressed similar to that, but withthe Leningrad Cowboys hairdo
Jayden Anderson
OFFICIAL PREMIER LEAGUE PLAYERS YOU'D GO FOR A PINT WITH POWER RANKINGS
10. Whitlock - would be ordering up 3 shots of turpentine and paint stripper halfway through your first pint 9. Cross - most boring man on the planet. Would order a Carling and a pack of ready salted crisps 8. Anderson - tee-total. He'd instead take you to a posh coffee shop with leather couches because of >muh back 7. Price - Rugby wanker. Would want to introduce to the university rugby club initiations like making you drink a glass of shite. Would order a jaeger bomb and scream "BWAOOHHOOOYYHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" in the bartenders face when he finished it 6. Wright - 2nd most boring man in Britain 5. Barney - likely to fall asleep in a diabetus-induced coma 4. MVG - literally autistic, would take you to Rileys and play darts the entire time 3. Gurney - wouldn't be too bad unless he promised not to make a phone call to his mates in Derry when you order a pint of Guinness 2. Smith - seems an alright bloke. Knows the best kebab shop in every town and city in the UK 1. Suljovic - a good lad. would regale you comfy tales of the Yugoslav wars and smothering infant Bosnians to death
