Brighton beckons for Week Six of the Premier League as the jostling continues for top-four spots and qualification for the finals.
Michael van Gerwen, a three-time winner in the first five nights, will be desperate to make amends for last Thursday’s first-hurdle fall in Exeter.
At the other end of the table, meanwhile, Peter Wright is still searching for his first point and needs to start motoring if he doesn’t want to be cut adrift.
- Luke Humphries to beat Gerwyn Price
- Peter Wright to beat Michael Smith
- Luke Littler to win Week 6
Humphries Form Should Be Too Good For Price
Luke Humphries and Gerwyn Price meet in the first quarter-final at the Brighton Arena where Cool Hand can see off the out-of-sorts Welshman.
Humphries has yet to win anything since triumphing at Alexandra Palace in the first week of January, yet his numbers are superb and it’s only a matter of time before he goes in again.
He could not have come any closer at the UK Open on Sunday when he reached the final only to flatline against Dimitri van den Bergh, blaming fatigue for allowing the Belgian to get up.
Suitably rested and ready to go again, Humphries, who boasts the highest overall average in this year’s Premier League, can topple Price, who looks out of sorts.
LUKE HUMPHRIES TO BEAT GERWYN PRICE
Snakebite Ready To Slither Into Life
It’s the fourth of the quarter-finals in Brighton where the best value might be with Peter Wright taken on to get the better of Michael Smith.
It has been a rotten start to the Premier League for Snakebite with five first-round losses in each of the first five weeks.
He won’t be panicking but he does need a win and he’ll be confident of getting that now that his form is improving.
Two semi-final appearances at last month’s four Players Championship heats will have lifted his spirits and, in Minehead at the UK Open at the weekend, he trashed Joshus Richardson 10-3 and defending champ Andrew Gilding 10-1 before succumbing to Stephen Bunting in a last-leg shootout.
Smith, in contrast, lost to Luke Woodhouse in Minehead hot on the heels of a trio of first-hurdle slips in the Premier League.
PETER WRIGHT TO BEAT MICHAEL SMITH
Luke To Nuke The Field in Brighton
The other two quarter-finals pit Rob Cross against Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler against Nathan Aspinall.
Cross versus Van Gerwen should be close. Van Gerwen is a three-time winner in the five previous weeks though flopped last Thursday and again at the UK Open, where Cross made the last eight.
Littler nailed a nine-darter in the first leg he ever played against Aspinall, at January’s Bahrain Masters which the youngster went on to win.
The youngster is inevitably suffering his share of defeats now as the reality of life on the big tour strikes home, but his averages remain phenomenally high.
The Asp won Week Five - his first win of the year - but Littler can see him off and go on to land the nightly honours.
