2023 Night 5 Premier League of Darts Preview – JP
2023 Night 5 Premier League Darts Preview
Back to the British mainland for 2023 Night 5 Premier League darts. Exeter is the venue, only a metaphorical stone’s throw from Minehead, the venue for this weekend’s UK Open (preview here).
Last week we had just one winner from the four recommendations, losing 1.20 points. We’re still just ahead at +0.35 points.
Michael van Gerwen won the final last week and now sits on top of the table. That means we have had a different winner in each of the first four weeks. Peter Wright is the only player to remain pointless, but if he wins tonight, he is right back in it, so there is no need for him to panic.
Michael van Gerwen vs. Gerwyn Price
Van Gerwen won last week’s night. It was a messy final against Price, but he won 6-5 in the end. His overall form remains quite poor however, losing five of his last ten matches. He will want to put in a good performance tonight to set himself up for the UK Open. Price only averaged 91.9 in last week’s final after missing 15 doubles and MVG got a bit lucky in that respect.
Gerwyn Price won the Cardiff round of PL matches and was runner up in Dublin last week. The crowds were noticeably gentle on him at both venues, as they were in Germany at the weekend.
Price went out in the third round on Sunday but he played really well in both his matches, hitting two ton plus averages, a 109 in the second round, and a 107 in defeat to eventual winner Dave Chisnall. He looks to be hitting top form. How the crowd treat him may bring him down, but it looks like he’ll take some stopping.
Their overall H2H record is 28-9 to Van Gerwen, but since the start of 2022, it is 5-4 to MVG. They have already met twice in this year’s PL and it is 1-1, both ending 6-5. Under this new nightly mini tournament format introduced last year, the have played six times and Price has won four and five have been over 9.5 legs, four over 10.5.
I suspect Price wins another close one.
2023 Night 5 Premier League Tip: 1 point over 9.5 legs @ 1.91 with Ladbrokes
2023 Night 5 Premier League Tip: 0.5 point Price to win 6-5 @ 7.5 with Betfair
Michael Smith vs Nathan Aspinall
The first thing to say here is that there is a fitness doubt regarding Michael Smith. He said that he had been unwell going into the Baltic Sea Darts Open at the weekend and then developed a painful wrist for his opening match on Saturday night.
It was clearly bothering him but he manged to win and returned for the 3rd round on Sunday when he averaged 99.2 but lost 3-6 to Dirk van Duijvenbode. It may have cleared up, it might not, and I recommend avoiding matches like this.
Aspinall is struggling for wins. He has lost six of his last ten matches and his win rate in 2023 is just 47%. That is a worry for our ante post bet for him to make the play offs. He is still in 4th place but needs to up his doubles play. Just 30% in the PL is not going to cut it. In four of his last six defeats his checkout rate has been under 27% and he is unbackable at the moment.
Smith might be injured, Aspinall is flaky on the doubles. This has no bet written all over it.
2023 Night 5 Premier League Tip: No Bet
Dimitri van den Bergh vs Chris Dobey
Both players are tied on 5 points. Dobey won the opening night in Belfast but has lost every match since. He started the year with eight straight wins but has lost five of his last ten matches. He isn’t doing too much wrong but his scoring has just dropped off a little bit. His doubles are holding up and he can take his chances but he might not get as many.
Van den Bergh is very much in the same boat. Losing five of his last ten, not playing badly but sometimes his doubling lets him down. Three of his five defeats saw checkout rates of 25% or less. It has held up in the PL so far and he has the highest checkout rate at 49%. Go figure.
Their H2H record is 6-4 to Dimitri. They have not met since 2021. All of those matches were best of eleven legs, and none required a deciding leg. Seven saw under 9.5 legs, including the last seven. Under 9.5 legs is a 1.83 shot which isn’t quite enough. No bet.
2023 Night 5 Premier League Tip: No Bet
Peter Wright vs Jonny Clayton
Four nights into the PL and still no points for Peter Wright. He isn’t doing much better outside of the travelling circus and he has lost seven of his last ten matches. It is not just a recent thing either, his seasonal win rate is just 53% which is more like a struggling tour card holder, not a Premier League elite one. A lot of his few wins in 2023 were in the World Series exhibition events. Outside of that he has played thirteen matches and won just five.
Jonny Clayton is playing better than his results suggest. He hasn’t won a ranking title since 2021 but he remains one of the heaviest scorers in the game with a seasonal average of 97.4. He got off to a slow start in the PL but has won his quarter final match for the last two weeks.
The Ferret reached the semi-final on the euro tour at the weekend, his second losing semi-final of the year. He is playing well, has won seven of his last ten, but is finding reaching the winning line difficult, never mind crossing it.
Their H2H record is 15-8 to Wright, and he has won their last three in a row. In last year’s PL it was 4-1 to Clayton. The Ferret loves the PL while Wright has relatively poor record in it.
