Night 9 Premier League Darts Tips – JP
Night 9 Premier League Darts Preview
On Night 8 The Ferret was back on top form. James Punt was back amongst the winners too. He is hoping to do even better this week in Leeds. Check out his Night 9 Premier League Darts preview and tips below.
Night 9 Preview
We are now into the second half of the league, and we have MVG and Jonny Clayton tied on 17 points, but Van Gerwen has a big leg difference advantage, +23 to +6. Van Gerwen, Clayton and Wright are looking like establishing themselves as very likely participants in the play offs. Joe Cullen is in fourth place, four points adrift of Wright in third. Obviously, with 5 points awarded to the nightly winners, things can change quickly, but the consistency of the top 3 doesn’t look like changing.
There are two players, James Wade and Michael Smith who have yet to be a nightly winner, and only MVG and Clayton have won two.
Michael Smith vs. Peter Wright
Smith’s recent form is a cause for concern. He has lost six of his last eight and his two wins were against Shaun Wilkinson and Radoslaw Szaganski. His H2H record with Snakebite is 12-26 and he has lost their last four in a row.
Wright is in better form, winning seven of his last ten and was runner up in PC10 at the weekend. He is playing some very fine darts and so long as his gallstones are not giving him any trouble, he will be hard to beat tonight.
Night 9 Premier League Darts Tips: 2 points Peter Wright to win @ 1.73 generally available
Gary Anderson vs. Michael van Gerwen
Anderson has won just two of his opening matches so far. He has missed match darts for the last two weeks and is propping up the table. Anderson was playing some great stuff in the second half of March, but he seems to have dropped off in terms of form. He was runner up in PC5 but since then he has had a few very poor performances on the outer ring and his checkout rate for his last eight matches is just 26.7%.
Van Gerwen, on the other hand, is slowly getting back into top form. He is top of the table and has now won three ranking titles in 2022. He won PC10 on Saturday, winning three matches in a deciding leg. MVG has won two PL nights and while he is not and will not be the dominant force of three or four years ago, he is a more confident player than he has been for the last 18 months.
Their H2H record is 47-19 to MVG but in 2022 it is 2-1 to Anderson, winning both 6-4.
If Anderson continues to struggle on the doubles, MVG wins easily. If he plays well on the doubles, MVG probably wins. Van Gerwen is the 1.54 favourite to win but I’ll take him to cover a -1.5 leg handicap.
Night 9 Premier League Darts Tips: 1 point MVG to win -1.5 legs @ 1.85 generally available
Joe Cullen vs. Jonny Clayton
Joe Cullen cut a frustrated figure last week. He beat a very flat Gerwyn Price 6-3 in the opener, but played very poorly against James Wade, averaging 86.3 and losing 2-6. Cullen has been relying on his B game a lot recently. While that is a part of his game that has improved, you can’t expect to get away with it too often against players of this calibre. Cullen re-grouped and rallied in the players championship events at the weekend. His A game was more to the fore and while he reached just one quarter final there was some very good darts from him.
Clayton Back To His Best
Jonny Clayton looked back to his best when winning all three of his matches last Thursday, averaging 104.7. I thought he might take that form into the players championship events at the weekend. While he won seven of his ten matches and had four ton plus averages, he couldn’t match the quality of his darts last week.
Their H2H record shows a 7-4 lead for Cullen, but The Ferret has won both their matches this year, both in the Premier League, 6-2 and 6-4. If he can find that form of last week, and Cullen reverts to his B game, then it would be an easy win for Clayton.
Clayton is the 1.67 favourite with Cullen a 2.38 shot. Those odds look about right. They have both won five of their last eight PL matches but Cullen has the lowest average and checkout rate in the league. I’ll have a small stakes bet on Clayton in the correct score market.
Night 9 Premier League Darts Tips: 0.5 point Clayton to win 6-3 @ 8.5 with Unibet
James Wade vs. Gerwyn Price
Price didn’t look very motivated last week and lost 3-6 to Cullen. He then played in the players championship events at the weekend and was surprisingly poor, hitting just one ton plus average. He has lost five of his last ten matches and he averaged just 92.8 across his seven matches at the weekend.
Is his injured hand affecting him? Hard to say, he won PC7 with the injury, but he is not following medical advice. It was recommended he put his hand in plaster for six weeks to allow the fracture to mend, but he is making do with a surgical support which he removes before play. Whatever it is, his form has taken a noticeable dip.
Fight For Playoffs
James Wade is yet to win a PL night, but he remains very much in the fight for a play off place. He reached the final last week but was thrashed 1-6 by a rampant Clayton. The Machine remains totally inconsistent with his averages rising and falling match by match. He has been like this for a long time, and you really don’t know what you are going to get with Wade.
Taking on Price with Wade is risky given his inconsistency, but Price looks opposable right now.
