Van Gerwen wins PL night in Brighton

Wim Blokpoel - After Dutch number one Michael van Gerwen won the Premier League night in Exeter last week, he was determined to do the same in Brighton last night.

Having never lost a PL game in Brighton, Van Gerwen was going to the venue with some confidence. In the quarter-finals he played ‘The Machine’ James Wade. It was a very close game, and eventually Van Gerwen went 5-4 up. He then got matchdarts but missed 8 (!!!!) of them, as Wade made it 5-5. However, in leg 11 Wade couldn’t get going as Mighty Mike finally got over the line 6-5.

In the semi’s, Van Gerwen played Joe Cullen who had a bye after the withdrawal of Gerwyn Price. Van Gerwen started amazing and went 4-0 up. In the end, it was a 6-1 demolishment of Cullen as MVG averaged almost 102! Into the final, he played Michael Smith. It was another great contest: at 1-1 the Dutchman hit two 12-darters to go 3-1 up, but with a 12-darter and 126-finish Smith closed the gap to 1 leg (3-4). However, at 5-3 Mighty Mike hit an 11-darter to win 6-3 with an average of almost 104! He is now top of the table, with 14 points, being followed by Wright and Clayton who both have 10 points. Hopefully, Van Gerwen can play at this level in the ranking events as well!