The Cazoo Premier League Darts season continues in Leeds on Thursday so check out Chris Hammer's match-by-match guide to the action.
Darts betting tips: Premier League night 13
1pt Smith to hit three or more 180s and a checkout of 120 or more at 11/4 (Sky Bet)
1pt MVG to win, score over 2.5 180s and have a checkout over 81.5 at 15/8 (Sky Bet)
1pt Price and Clayton to both have a 100+ checkout at 3/1 (Sky Bet)
SL Acca: Smith, MVG, Price and Aspinall all to win at 9/2 with Sky Bet
Thursday April 27: Night 13
- TV Coverage: Sky Sports (1900 GMT)
- Format: Quarter-Finals, best of 11 legs
- Venue: First Direct Arena, Leeds
Michael Smith (2/5) v Chris Dobey (7/4)
- Head to Head: 4-5 (TV: 1-3)
- 2023 Head to Head: 0-3 (TV: 0-3)
- PL Average: 97.04 - 96.91
- PL 180s per leg: 0.34 - 0.27
- PL checkout percentage: 36.63% - 41.14%
- Legs won with 100+ checkout: 13.0% - 13.9%
Michael Smith finds himself in a spot of bother as he heads to Leeds outside the top four and comes up against an opponent he's not beaten this year in three attempts.
Chris Dobey's play-off chances are fading quickly following a run of four successive quarter-final defeats and his last victory in the Premier League came against Smith in Newcastle on March 23.
Neither player heads into this clash off the back of a particularly impressive European Tour outing at the weekend while their recent averages have been similarly impressive but not spectacular.
The signs point to a close battle and if that's the case then you can expect plenty of 180s given how prolific they are on the maximum front and potentially at least one or two 100+ checkouts as they both win around 13% of legs that way.
Smith is actually leading the way for 180s per leg in the Premier League this season while 10 of his 13 ton+ checkouts have been 120 or higher. That's why I like the look of him to manage three+ 180s and a finish of 120+ at 11/4.
Verdict: 6-4
Michael van Gerwen (1/3) v Peter Wright (9/4)
- Head to Head: 74-24, 2 draws (TV: 44-8, 2 draws)
- 2023 Head to Head: 4-1 (TV: 3-1)
- PL Average: 98.21 - 94.32
- PL 180s per leg: 0.30 - 0.22
- PL checkout percentage: 39.42% - 38.72%
- Legs won with 100+ checkout: 11.0% - 14.9%
Michael van Gerwen and Peter Wright couldn't have had much more contrasting Premier League seasons and it would take a brave punter to back Snakebite to end his four-match losing streak against his old rival even in this short format.
Not only are there six places and 22 points separating the pair, but MVG has the highest average in the competition and Wright has the lowest. There is one stat in those listed above that Wright is superior in; percentage of legs won with a 100+ checkout. But that's helped by the fact he's managed to win just 67 of them - less than half of his opponent's 136.
Given that Wright has managed just one 100+ average in his last 27 matches in all competitions and has dipped under 90 on eight occasions in that time - including a very disappointing 78 against Mensur Suljovic at the weekend - you'd have thought he'd need van Gerwen to have one of his off days.
If he misses as many doubles as he did during his 7-0 defeat to Josh Rock at the weekend then you never know!
Ultimately, however, there's much more good than bad from MVG this season so I'd expect him to win and hit Sky Bet's fairly modest targets of three 180s and a checkout of over 81.5 at 15/8.
Verdict: 6-4
Gerwyn Price (2/5) v Jonny Clayton (7/4)
- Head to Head: 19-11 (TV: 11-8)
- 2023 Head to Head: 4-1 (TV: 4-1)
- PL Average: 97.83 - 94.45
- PL 180s per leg: 0.33 - 0.21
- PL checkout percentage: 40.86% - 42.92%
- Legs won with 100+ checkout: 7.1% - 10.6%
Gerwyn Price's completed his relentless surge to the top of the table last week but was unable to finish the night in style as he produced an extremely rare below-par display in the final against Nathan Aspinall.
Before that, he'd made it seven 100+ Premier League averages in a row with victories over Michael Smith (6-3) and Jonny Clayton (6-1) so there's no doubt he's playing the best darts out of anyone right now.
He's now produced 18 ton+ averages in his last 21 matches in all competitions which is phenomenal and he's only dropped below 100 twice in his last 12 matches.
However, we can probably expect a closer encounter than we got between the Welsh team-mates last week because Clayton heads into the night on a high having won the Austrian Darts Open, where he defeated Josh Rock 8-6 in the final with an average of 101.36.
The Ferret is clinging onto fourth spot and is certainly needs the two points more than Price so I can see this one having at least 10 legs.
If that's the case then I like the look of both players having one or more 100+ checkout at 3/1. Clayton fired in three of those in his match with Chris Dobey last week while Price managed a couple on the night.
Verdict: 6-4
Nathan Aspinall (4/5) v Dimitri Van den Bergh (19/20)
- Head to Head: 7-10 (TV: 3-7)
- 2023 Head to Head: 2-2 (TV: 2-2)
- PL Average: 95.81 - 95.17
- PL 180s per leg: 0.31 - 0.27
- PL checkout percentage: 36.20% - 39.80%
- Legs won with 100+ checkout: 13.9% - 8.75%
According to the odds, this is the hardest match to call despite Nathan Aspinall being nine points clear of Dimitri Van den Bergh and having won their last two Premier League encounters.
However, they are 2-2 in this campaign and apart from the first meeting, which the Belgian won 6-1, they've all been pretty close.
Aspinall actually snapped a 10-match losing streak in their rivalry back in March before repeating the trick last week on his way to his first Premier League nightly success of the campaign so there's definitely no mental block anymore.
Van den Bergh is one of just two players not to win a night now alongside Peter Wright and he's not really got close regularly either having only reached one final.
The Belgian isn't producing those blockbuster performances at the moment and the last time he weighed in with a 100+ average was 17 matches ago in March.
Nevertheless I'd expect this to be a bit of a scrap that could easily go either way.
Verdict: 6-5
Premier League Darts 2023: Averages, 180s and checkout statistics
- After week 12
TOURNAMENT AVERAGE
- Michael van Gerwen: 98.05
- Michael Smith: 97.39
- Gerwyn Price: 96.73
- Chris Dobey: 96.54
- Dimitri Van den Bergh: 96.00
- Nathan Aspinall: 95.71
- Jonny Clayton: 94.47
- Peter Wright: 93.85
MOST 180s & 180s PER LEG
- Michael van Gerwen: 61 (0.29)
- Michael Smith: 56 (0.33)
- Nathan Aspinall: 56 (0.33)
- Gerwyn Price: 54 (0.28)
- Chris Dobey: 41 (0.29)
- Dimitri Van den Bergh: 37 (0.27)
- Jonny Clayton: 37 (0.22)
- Peter Wright: 25 (0.20)
DOUBLES AND CHECKOUT PERCENTAGE
- Jonny Clayton: 83/196 (42.35%)
- Chris Dobey: 66/160 (41.25%)
- Peter Wright: 53/132 (40.15%)
- Gerwyn Price: 107/268 (39.93%)
- Dimitri Van den Bergh: 68/171 (39.77%)
- Michael van Gerwen: 120/310 (38.70%)
- Michael Smith: 82/222 (36.94%)
- Nathan Aspinall: 78/227 (34.36%)
100+ CHECKOUTS, HIGHEST CHECKOUTS & % LEGS WON WITH 100+ CHECKOUT
- Michael van Gerwen: 12 (10.0% legs won with 100+ checkout)
100+ Checkouts: 170, 150, 142, 125, 114, 112x2, 106, 106, 105, 104, 101 - Michael Smith: 11 (13.41%)
100+ Checkouts: 148, 140, 137, 130, 122x2, 121x2, 115, 111, 110 - Nathan Aspinall: 10 (12.82%)
100+ Checkouts: 143, 140, 136, 130, 116, 112, 110, 108, 100x2 - Chris Dobey: 9 (13.63%)
100+ Checkouts: 170, 160, 148, 137, 121, 114, 112, 103, 100 - Peter Wright: 9 (16.98%)
100+ Checkouts: 156, 133, 130, 125, 122, 121x2, 120, 116 - Gerwyn Price: 7 (6.54%)
100+ Checkouts: 156, 138, 116, 110, 106, 100x2 - Dimitri Van den Bergh: 6 (8.82%)
100+ Checkouts: 140, 127x2, 126, 121x2 - Jonny Clayton: 6 (5.60%)
100+ Checkouts: 142, 120x2, 116x2, 112
CLICK HERE FOR THE PREMIER LEAGUE DARTS FIXTURES!
Darts: Related content
- 2023 Premier League schedule
- 2023 PDC Darts calendar and results
- Worst losers in darts
- World number ones in darts
- Best players never to be number one
- Do averages lie?
- Q School winners: Who will shine in 2023
- Paul Nicholson's Ally Pally tales
- Watch all the Ally Pally nine-darters
- Players everyone hates to face
- Players everyone loves to face
- How to make it as a pro?
- How much money do players earn?
- Greatest darts rivalries
- Rivalries to cherish
- Be canny with counting
- Phil Taylor's greatest display
- World Cup of Great Darts performances
- Sky Bet's darts odds