Aspinall takes first Premier League win after series of superb finishes

At the Westpoint Arena, Aspinall proved to be too strong for Rob Cross in the final, winning 6-2. On his way to the final, Aspinall dispatched Peter Wright and reigning world champion Luke Humphries. 

Final

Nathan Aspinall (#4) 6-2 Rob Cross (#6)

Aspinall, with some luck, holds his own leg and starts the final with a lead. Cross came very close first but left the opening leg to Asp. With the chance for a 2-0 lead, Aspinall missed a first set of darts for the leg, but a dart into double 5 provided the margin of 2 to start the match!

The misfortune of a bouncer kept Cross from an easier finish in the third leg, briefly giving Aspinall the chance for a third consecutive leg win. Aspinall failed to do so, but Cross likewise after this with a miss on the double bull.

A narrow finish on double 3 eventually made it 3-0 for Aspinal after all, putting the 32-year-old Englishman halfway to the final victory already.

The golden opportunity for a leg win was there for Cross in the fourth leg but misses on low doubles caused setbacks for Voltage. Aspinall had the same problem and went bust, after which Cross did the same. At the fourth attempt, it was a hit for Aspinall and he threw out double 2 for the fourth leg.

Six perfect darts for Rob Cross set up a 141 for a famous nine-darter, but Cross could not follow through on his 'hot hand' and eventually ended up with an even bigger deficit. Aspinall came back and finished the leg with his second 160 finish of the night! It put Aspinall one leg away from his first win of this calendar year.

Attempt six was then hit for the good-humoured Cross, who put his first leg of the final on the board.

The atmosphere on stage was convivial at a score of 5-1, which changed to 5-2 thanks to an equally handsome finish from Cross, throwing out from 121.

However, Cross' apparent comeback came to an end when Aspinall broke Cross and recorded his first day victory of the year in Exeter.

Semi-finals

Luke Humphries (#1) 5-6 Nathan Aspinall (#4) 

Nathan Aspinall dealt with Luke Humphries in the first semi-final of the evening.

A match that saw as many as three breaks in the first four legs soon became a triumph for Aspinall, who is seeking revenge after losing the final in the previous Premier League edition. He showed his greatest form in the middle of the match with a 144 finish, when Aspinall was already leading 1-3.

With a golden missed chance in the seventh leg, after Humphries went 'bust' on 25, Aspinall failed to pull the match to his feet early, making it surprisingly exciting. Humphries came back from 1-5 deficit to make it 4-5 after two consecutive legs with 11 darts and averages of 136.

Humphries put the score at 5-5, but Aspinall really ends the match insanely with a 160 finish. Aspinall goes to the final for the second week in a row!

Rob Cross (#6) 6-3 Luke Littler (#30)

It was hard to imagine a more evenly matched duel than this one between Cross and Littler. Both men did not budge and both gave away just one leg in the first six, bringing the score to 3-3.

However, Littler left the seventh and eighth to Cross, who thus steadily reached 5-3 without throwing a single 180. Cross, who had a mighty 100 finish earlier in the match, had the match in his hands six times with match darts with the score at 5-3.

Attempt number seven then hit after all for Cross, who ended the match with a double-double percentage of just 30 per cent (6/20) and a place in the final. Littler failed badly on the doubles with only three hit dimes from 18 attempts, representing a moderate percentage of 16.67 per cent.

Quarter-finals

Luke Humphries (#1) 6-3 Michael van Gerwen (#2)

Michael van Gerwen failed to win his third Premier League night in a row. In the quarter-finals, reigning world champion Luke Humphries was too strong for the green wrecking ball in nine legs.

Van Gerwen was particularly lacking in reaching checkouts: Van Gerwen had only five chances to finish the leg, while Humphries had no fewer than 21 touches for a leg win.

Van Gerwen opened the evening trailing 3-1 after being broken in the fourth leg, but then immediately broke Humphries back to then level the score at 3-3. However, the last three legs all went to Cool Hand Luke, who outplayed Van Gerwen in the final leg with a 180 one turn for the leg win, which he took with a 56 finish.

Nathan Aspinall (#4) 6-4 Peter Wright (#8)

Peter Wright ran out to a good lead early in the pot after breaking on Aspinall in the fourth leg with a 156 finish, but a rock-solid leg from the Asp brought him back into the match at lightning speed: Aspinall needed just four sets of darts to connect.

Aspinall then retained his own leg and threw it out particularly skilfully with a finish in the double bull: 3-3.

Aspinall then failed to run out: with the chance of a 5-3 lead, Aspinall missed three darts on double 20, which allowed Wright to level the score at 4-4. It is not the highest-quality piece of darts on display, but the excitement is well and truly there at the Westpoint Arena in Exeter!

Perhaps it was also the tension that made Wright miss a dart on double 4 for a hefty checkout of 136 and then drop back to a finish on double 1. It proved to be the final blow for Wright, who saw Aspinall come all the way back from 226-8 and throw a 74 finish.

The match leg was Aspinall's, but almost went to Wright after a narrow miss on a 170-finish. Aspinall eventually finished it off most personally with a 36-finish, thus advancing to the semi-finals.

Gerwyn Price (#5) 1-6 Rob Cross (#6)

Rob Cross leaves nothing to chance and storms to a wide lead in the early legs.

In particular, a rock-solid second leg, in which he averaged 136.64 per turn, and a hefty 132 finish in the third underpinned his lightning-fast start.

Price seemed to have nothing in his own hands and was on average as much as 30 points behind Cross in the fifth leg (83 to 113).

Price just failed to put the pressure on Cross and even in his own legs he never got far out of sight of the 2018 world champion. Nevertheless, Price saved himself from a whitewash by taking the sixth leg to his name with the highest finish of the night: Price threw out a 160 to take the match to 1-5.

However, the seventh and final leg belonged to Cross anyway, ruthlessly sidelining Price with a 1-6 victory.

Luke Littler (#30) 6-2 Michael Smith (#3)

The duel between Littler and Smith got off to a rock-hard start with bizarre legs from Littler, who conceded absurd averages of 119 and 125 in the second and third legs.

Smith opened with two legs with averages of 107 and got to 2-2, but still allowed Littler to run out again to 5-2 after collecting a big-man finish from Littler on 140 and three costly missed darts on double 20 in the seventh leg.

Littler really left nothing to crumbs for Bully Boy and finished the job on double 8 to win the match 6-2.