Gerwyn Price claimed victory on night nine of the Premier League in Manchester, averaging 105.84 to defeat Gian van Veen 6-2 in the final. The win, his second nightly triumph of the campaign, moves the Welshman up to second in the table. Price produced a trio of strong performances, opening his quarter-final against Luke Humphries with a 167 checkout followed by a 135, averaging 104.46 in a 6-2 win. He then averaged 112.91 in a 6-2 semi-final victory over Stephen Bunting before his 6-2 final win over Van Veen. Price has fantastic memories of Manchester, having hit nine-darters on his previous two Premier League visits, and no-one but Luke Littler has beaten him in the Premier League since week four.
The major talking point, however, came from the quarter-final clash between Gian van Veen and Luke Littler. Van Veen edged a thriller 6-5, but the match ended in controversy. After missing double 15 for the match in the deciding leg, Van Veen turned his head in disappointment and saw Littler celebrating. Littler then gestured for the Dutchman to get on with it, missed two match darts of his own at double seven, and made a 'cry-baby' mime to the crowd. Van Veen held his nerve to hit double six for the match, followed by a brief handshake before Littler marched off.
Van Veen later told Sky Sports: "From my perspective, I missed the double 15 and I was fuming with myself that I missed, and I looked around and he was celebrating that I missed. That was out of order. I was fuming about that. He probably saw it and then he missed three darts at double seven and then he looked at me like I was the problem... I thought that was out of order. He missed and then I took it out and he's probably fuming. That is darts and that is my perspective. His perspective is probably different, but that is it. I love Luke to bits. He's a fantastic player and guy for the sport and to see all the attention he's brought to it is phenomenal, but this is also part of it as well and today was my day." Littler responded to Van Veen's quotes with laughing emojis on his Instagram story, also posting an image showing the PDC titles he has won over the past two years.
Former player Wayne Mardle commented on Sky Sports: "Luke Littler was happy that Gian van Veen went inside the 15 and he kind of did the Simon Whitlock 'well done' and you shouldn't do that. As he did it, Gian turned round and he kind of went 'why did you do that?' You've got to say that Gian handled it better because Luke Littler fluffed his lines and went too aggressive at the double seven. Gian held it together really well. [Littler] didn't expect to get caught. He got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and he won't be doing that again." Three-time world champion John Part added: "I think don't either player was too far into the wrong. The end of a match can get quite heated. Gian handled himself more appropriately in a lot of ways. Luke could have handled it slightly better."
Despite his quarter-final exit, Littler remains top of the Premier League standings. Van Veen, who is still recovering after missing night seven in Dublin because he needed surgery to remove kidney stones, moves up to fifth. The match was a repeat of January's World Championship final. The other quarter-final results saw Michael van Gerwen lose 3-6 to Stephen Bunting, and Jonny Clayton lose 4-6 to Josh Rock. In the semi-finals, Van Veen beat Josh Rock 6-3. The next event is on Thursday, 9 April at The Brighton Centre, with quarter-finals featuring Luke Humphries v Jonny Clayton, Gerwyn Price v Josh Rock, Luke Littler v Stephen Bunting, and Michael van Gerwen v Gian van Veen.
