Night 1 Premier League Darts Preview

And so it begins. The Premier League of Darts kicks off tonight and it’ll be interesting to see how it unfolds. If you are considering having an outright bet, click here to see James Punt’s ante-post, player by player preview. You can check out his Night 1 Premier League Darts tips below.

Jonny Clayton vs. Joe Cullen

It will be a baptism of fire for Joe Cullen as he starts his first full season in the PL with a match against Jonny Clayton, in Cardiff. The Masters winner does have a good record against Clayton, winning seven of the nine previous matches and the last three in a row.

Jonny Clayton has won seven of his last ten matches and in his last six, has averaged over 100 five times, with a worst of 98.4. He will take some shifting, bad H2H record or not.

Cullen will still be buzzing after lifting his first televised title on Sunday. He now has the chance to make some serious wedge in the PL and it will be interesting to see how he copes at the elite level. His 12 month average is nearly three points shy of Clayton’s and his win rate 10% lower than the Welshman’s.

Home Discomforts For Ferret?

Clayton won the PL last year, but it was a very different league. Not just in terms of the format, but the fact that it was all played behind closed doors. This will be his first ‘real’ PL match at he is first up in the Cardiff International Arena, with 5000 Welsh fans cheering him on.

Clayton has home advantage, but sometimes playing at home heaps more pressure on the home favourite as they try too hard to win for the fans. Hopefully Clayton’s relaxed demeanour will allow him to just get on with it and treat it like any other big match. Clayton made an appearance in Cardiff in the 2020 PL as a contender and he lost 1-7 to Michael Smith.

Clayton is the 1.62 favourite, Cullen 2.35. It is hard to disagree with those odds. Cullen is 1.95 to hit the most 180s and there is a touch of value there, but I’ll sit this one out.

Night 1 Premier League Darts Tips: No Bet

Gerwyn Price vs. James Wade

James Wade is a bit of a bogeyman for Price. Wade has won ten of their eighteen matches, has a win and a draw against Price in the PL and in 2021, Wade won two of their three matches.

Price has won seven of his last ten matches but hasn’t quite been at the top of his game since winning the Grand Slam last November. The last time these two met was in that Grand Slam and Price won that semi-final 16-9.

Wade has won six of his last ten matches and he has been his usual inconsistent self. He has had three sub 90 averages in those ten matches and won all three. His last five matches have seen him average just 90.5. He is not playing great, isn’t a heavy scorer, but he reached the semi-final of the Grand Slam and World Championship.

Crowd On Iceman’s Side

Price is the 1.40 favourite and Wade the 3.20 outsider. Price will have the crowd on his side, a novel experience for him, but he hasn’t a great record in Cardiff, having played three, won one, drawn one and lost one. Home advantage hasn’t really helped the Welsh players in the past.

In first to six leg matches, the outsiders have a puncher’s chance and the odds for Wade are good enough for a speculative bet.

Night 1 Premier League Darts Tips: 1 point James Wade to win @ 3.20 with Unibet

Peter Wright vs. Michael Smith

A repeat of the World Championship final which Wright won 7-5. Overall Wright has a 24-12 H2H record and in the PL it is 3-2 with 2 draws. Snakebite has won nine of his last ten matches, his loss being at last week’s Masters, when he turned up with a set of darts he won in a lucky bag. Who knows what tools of the trade he will turn up with tonight?

Michael Smith will have noted that Joe Cullen became another player to win his first TV title before him. Bully Boy has won seven of his last ten matches, but he has lost twice to Wright in the last three months. Smith has been scoring better than Wright but he still gets mired in double trouble when it matters. One of his defeats was when he missed ten match darts against Daryl Gurney in the Players Championship finals, and he missed 26 doubles when losing 8-10 to Dave Chisnall last week.

New Darts For Snakebite?

I imagine Wright will not use the stubby darts he used last week but he could make another daft choice. Smith is all about his doubles. If he has a good night, I suspect he wins but his game always comes with that health warning. Smith hasn’t beaten Wright in the PL since April 2018 but when he did, he thrashed him, winning both PL matches that year 7-1.

Wright is the 1.75 favourite with Smith a 2.10 shot. This is hard match to call. Wright, if he brings proper darts, is winning so many matches he is hard to oppose. However, Smith is scoring better than Wright has been. So long as he hits a fair number of doubles, he is perfectly capable of winning.

These two are both ranked top 10 for 180s per leg in the last 12 months and they usually hit a hatful in their H2Hs. The bookmakers have over 6.5 maximums at 2.00 and unfortunately, they have not slipped up there.

Night 1 Premier League Darts Tips: 1 point Wright vs. Smith to be the match with the most 180s tonight @ 2.10 with Ladbrokes, Betfred

Michael van Gerwen vs. Gary Anderson

Van Gerwen’s power may have waned over the last year or two, but he has a firm grip on Gary Anderson. His overall H2H record is 46-17 but Anderson has won just one of their last fifteen matches. They played five times in 2021 and it was 4 wins to MVG and a PL draw. Their PL record is 10-5 with three draws. They have met twice in the last three months, MVG winning both, 10-8 and 10-6.

Van Gerwen has won seven of his last ten matches and despite being the heaviest scorer over the last 12 months, he is not converting good scoring into tournament wins. He has not even made a major final in the last 12 months.

Anderson has won six of his last ten matches. That included his run to the World Championship semi-final, but he always overperforms at Ally Pally.

Michael van Gerwen is the 1.44 favourite to continue his good record against his one time rival. Anderson is the favourite to hit the most 180s. His 180s per leg rate is 25.6% compared to Van Gerwen’s 22.4%. But, in their five matches in 2021 MVG had the most 180s three times, Anderson once and the other was a tie.

It is hard to oppose MVG given their H2H record, and I will take a chance that he can once again hit the most 180s.

Night 1 Premier League Darts Tips: 1 point Van Gerwen to win and hit the most 180s @ 3.25 with Betfair

Many bookies are offering odds on the night’s winner, or name the finalists, but I will leave that for now and see how this format plays out.

-JamesPunt