Gerwyn Price beat Nathan Aspinall 6-3 to win night three of the Premier League in Dublin, after earlier seeing off world champion Luke Littler. Welshman Price – sporting an Ireland green shirt to help get the fans onside – had backed up his quarter-final win over Littler with another pristine display against world number one Luke Humphries, coming from behind to win 6-3 and book his place in the final.
Aspinall had battled his way to a 6-3 win over Michael Van Gerwen in the semi-finals after earlier seeing off Rob Cross for a first match win in this year’s event. Price, though, maintained his solid scoring and fine finishing to take a crucial break in the seventh leg of the final before pinning 18 to move one away.
With Aspinall left on 187, Price whittled down to a match dart at double top, which he then landed on his next throw to cap a polished display with another game average of more than 100. Price had earlier continued his good form against Littler, closing out a 6-4 win over the reigning Premier League champion in the quarter-finals.
Welshman Price delighted the Dublin crowd as he landed five 180s with a match average of just over 102 to fend off any hopes of a comeback from Littler, who took last week’s overall nightly win. While there was not a repeat of the level of disruption there had been in Glasgow – where referee Kirk Bevin had taken to the microphone to call for a stop to the whistling and jeering from hecklers – there was still some tension in the 3Arena.
Littler – who is set to lead the teams out at his local rugby league club Warrington Wolves against Catalans Dragons on Friday night – turned to face fans after finishing off a 109 checkout to reduce the deficit back to 4-2, gesturing for them to calm down.
The 18-year-old, though, could not produce the same comeback like he did in Scotland when 5-1 down against Rob Cross as ‘The Iceman’ Price, world champion in 2021, closed out a fifth straight win over Littler, who threw his darts to the floor in frustration when walking off the stage.
In the opening match of the evening, Humphries beat Stephen Bunting 6-3, leaving ‘The Bullet’ still to register his first win in this year’s event. Aspinall, though, got off the mark with a 6-3 win over Cross, while Van Gerwen – who later went out at the semi-final stage for the third straight week – had wrapped up a 6-4 victory over Chris Dobey with a bullseye finish.
