Defending Premier League champion Jonny Clayton is already looking the man to catch as this year’s field heads to Belfast for Night Three of the Premier League Darts season.
Clayton is loving life in the new-look Premier League with eight points from the first two nights and is 7/2 to extend his lead further by winning at Belfast’s SSE Arena.
The Ferret was runner-up to Peter Wright on Night One and beat Joe Cullen in the final on Night Two to storm to the top of the rankings, and he’s 11/4 to go on and become just the third player after Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen to successfully defend the title.
Rookie Cullen Means Business
If Clayton is flying then Cullen is also revelling in his first tilt at the Premier League.
The Yorkshireman only got in the event courtesy of winning the Masters at the end of January and a 6-2 thrashing by Clayton in his opening match in Cardiff two weeks ago was hardly the ideal start.
But last week in Liverpool he clicked into gear with wins over James Wade and Gerwyn Price to set up another showdown with Clayton and, just as a week before, it was the Welshman who prevailed.
Cullen went out and won both Pro Tour events in Wigan over the weekend and his confidence will be soaring as he prepares to take on Michael van Gerwen in his quarter-final in Belfast.
He’s 6/5 to beat Mighty Mike – he’s the ‘home’ player so gets to throw first – and is 8/1 to go on to take Night Three glory and 4/1 to reach the final in Belfast.
Scratchy Smith Needs To Get on Board
The winner of the Cullen-Van Gerwen quarter-final will be ‘away’ at the winner of the first quarter between Michael Smith and Gerwyn Price.
World No.1 Price is 20/31 to see off Smith in a repeat of their world quarter-final which the Englishman won. Gezzy is also 7/2 to go on and take the honours in Belfast with Bully Boy available at 15/2.
Smith is already playing catch-up as the only player in the field yet to garner a point following a pair of first-round setbacks, though he was drawn against Wright and Clayton in the first two weeks, so hardly the easiest of starts.
Wright Primed To Avenge Liverpool Horror
The bottom half of the draw in Belfast features James Wade against Clayton – the Welshman’s a 4/11 shot – and an all-Scottish dust-up between old rivals and former World Cup partners Wright and Gary Anderson.
Wright, 20/43 for his last-eight showdown, will feel he has a point to prove after last Thursday.
Snakebite had gone to Liverpool last week feeling on top of the world – quite literally as the new world champ – and on top of the Premier League after starring on Night One in Cardiff.
Then, suddenly, he had darter’s block against MvG. The bitter rival he always wants to beat and yet when the two men strode on to the stage at the M&S Bank Arena, it was Wright who froze, averaging under 85 in a 6-1 hammering.
Wright’s better than that, should take care of Anderson, though may not have the measure of Clayton, who is a hard man to oppose reaching the final.
*All odds correct at time of writing.
