Last Th ursday evening, the likes of seven-time champion Micheal van Gerwen, 17-year-old superstar Luke Littler and home favorite Gerwyn Price took the stage at the Utilita Arena Cardiff for the first round of the Premier League Darts. Despite the volatile Cardiff crowd, former world champion, Micheal Smith, silenced the whistlers to win the opening night with a wonderful performance and claimed maximum points.
The evening kicked off with Rob Cross beating Peter Wright 6-3 for a place in the semi-finals. Followed by chants of Wales, Wales, Wales as Gerwyn ‘The Iceman’ Price made his way up to the stage, hoping for another win like last year in Cardiff . Aspinall missed two double 10s, letting Price win with a 120 checkout.
Next up was a repeat of the World Championship final from last year, as Micheal Smith took on Micheal van Gerwen. The Dutchman had an early blow, with Smith winning the opening leg on a double 5. As van Gerwen, who had just won the Dutch Darts Masters at the weekend, banged a 180, Smith checked out on a 120. The pair fought it out between legs, arriving at the final with 5-5, as Smith managed to get the victory.
Fan-favorite, Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler was up next, repeating the World Championship final pairing against Luke Humphries, who won the WC last year. Littler, who is now 17 years old, won the first leg as he claimed to be “one of the big boys”. Humphries seemed to be distracted with the crowd booing him as Littler swept the floor against him. Littler got revenge on Humphries as he went on to face Micheal Smith in the semi-finals.
The clock hits 21:30 as two-time World Cup winner Gerwyn Price rakes on former world champion Rob Cross. Fans in the stadium cheered shouts of encouragement as the Welshman landed 121 and 128 before winning the match on tops to reach the final. Teenage sensation, Littler, then went
against Micheal ‘Bully Boy’ Smith, a reflection of the 2023 World Youth Champion taking on the 2023 World Champion. After the first four legs, Littler landed a double 10 to make it a level game, but Smith got the better of him, despite some members of the crowd attempting to put him off on his doubles. As security tried to fi nd these whistlers, Smith had the last laugh winning the match to go on to the final.
The Cardiff crowd went on as Smith went up against Price, who got the hold he wanted with an 80 out-shot on tops. Bully Boy then got his first break in the final on tops for a neat 75 fi nish, and silenced the crowd as he went on to be two legs away from victory in the capital.
After beating Price, Smith apologized to the whistling fans for winning and said he didn’t blame the Cardiff fans for shouting at Gerwyn Price’s opponentsprobably the ‘price’ to pay for playing in someone’s home country. It was a chaotic and marvelous first round in Cardiff, and a lot of fans are ready for the next in Berlin.