Michael van Gerwen, Raymond van Barneveld, Phil Taylor provide Premier League Darts talking points
Sunday 8 May 2016 15:51, UK
Michael van Gerwen, Phil Taylor and Gary Anderson secured one-sided victories in Manchester to guarantee their Premier League Darts play-off places.
But there's still plenty at stake, and plenty to learn from the most recent edition of arrows. There is just one week of the normal season remaining before the top four players head to London's O2 Arena to see who will be crowned the 2016 champion.
Five talking points from this week...
Master still mentoring
Taylor is still convincingly in charge of his long-time rivalry with Adrian Lewis, particularly when they collide on the biggest stages.
The latest result, a 7-2 win for 'The Power' stretches his unbeaten run to five matches in the Premier League against Lewis. This season, Taylor has an aggregate win of 14-3 against his former protege from Stoke.
The overall head-to-head is frighteningly one-sided - Taylor leads 51-15 - although some of that can be attributed to a prime 'Power' taking on the up-and-coming 'Jackpot'. But with Lewis now a 31-year-old two-time world champion, it is time for him to start readdressing the balance of 'Power'.
But Lewis leads play-off race
It's not all bad news, 'Jackpot'! The Stoke thrower may have lost to Taylor but he still sits in the precious No 4 spot which he must hold in order to qualify for the season finale.
Lewis has 17 points, one above Peter 'Snakebite' Wright - the only player who can mathematically catch him with just one fixture remaining. Lewis can't catch third-placed Anderson, who is guaranteed his play-off spot.
Next week in Rotterdam, the final fixtures before the play-offs in London, Lewis has the daunting task of playing defending champion Anderson. A draw would suffice to book Lewis' ticket to The O2 Arena, while Wright takes on Van Barneveld.
MVG getting over Barney hoodoo
Sky Sports expert Wayne Mardle has regularly insisted that Dutch legend Van Barneveld raises his game when he plays his younger compatriot Van Gerwen, pointing most notably to Barney's World Championship last-16 win in January.
"When Barney plays Van Gerwen, it's horses for courses," Mardle said. "Certain players love playing others." But in Manchester, it was Van Gerwen playing with extra gusto as he romped to a 7-2 victory.
Overall, Van Gerwen has a 24-16 head-to-head advantage over the elder statesman, having won four of their last six. The world No 1, it appears, is slowly ironing out one of the only weaknesses in his game…
We'll see another nine-darter… surely!
Van Gerwen faltered with the ninth dart of an otherwise perfect leg - drawing huge sighs from an expectant crowd desperate to see darts' most fabled shot.
Lewis, earlier this season, struck the first Premier League nine-darter in four years but the idea of two arriving together must wait for another week. Van Gerwen came close but proved that the top 10 players in the world have too much quality between them to wait another four years.
There has only ever been seven nine-dart finishes in the near 12-year history of the competition - of the active players, Taylor has three, Van Barneveld has two and Lewis has one. So is there time for one more in 2016?
You can get thrashed...
Four one-sided results in Manchester proved that, even at the highest level of the game, players can dish out beatings to each other. But how does that happen?
Our man Mardle, when describing a tour event that saw Van Gerwen shocked 6-0 by Ian White, put into context how a high-level darts match can end so emphatically. "It's three breaks of throw with a 106 average," Mardle said. "If you're throwing first and you start with a 12-dart leg, you're very rarely going to be broken because the other guy would have to go out in nine.
"Then you break to go 2-0 up, then you hold again - because, don't forget, you're averaging 106 so the odds are that you won't give your opponent a fifth visit."
In the notoriously short and quick-fire format of the Premier League, a few decisive breaks or a couple of lapse legs can quickly result in a thrashing.
Watch Premier League Darts return next week on Thursday from Rotterdam - live on Sky Sports 1 HD at 7pm.
