Three world champions risk Premier League Darts AXE with nine stars competing for 3 spots alongside champ Luke Littler
THREE former world champions face missing the cut for the Premier League Darts roster following their horror oche shows.
The PDC will announce soon their eight-person line-up for the 17-week Road Show, which takes in seven countries and climaxes at London’s O2 Arena on Thursday May 29.
Defending champion Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen, Rob Cross and Stephen Bunting are set to be involved.
That leaves three places up for grabs and the likes of Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price and Peter Wright might all be absent due to poor 2024 campaigns.
Glen Durrant, the three-time Lakeside world champion, knows what it takes to win the Prem as he did in the Covid-hit year of 2020.
Yet the following year, it all went wrong as Duzza, 54, was eliminated with nine consecutive defeats on the road.
The Middlesbrough thrower, an excellent addition to this year’s Sky Sports commentary team, said: “As I found out, the Premier League is a shop window for the highs and lows of darts.
“For some people it has been their making, for others it has been to their detriment because there’s a lot of travelling.
“You don’t see much of your family for 17 weeks and it’s a hard slog if you’re not winning.
“This year’s field is incredibly hard to call – you have to remember the top four in the Order of Merit are automatic picks.
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“But the other four are based partly on their charisma, experience and appeal as crowd-pleasers.
“You have probably six or seven players chasing the last three spots.
“Three of them are former world champions and maybe two of them could miss the cut this time.
“Michael Smith ticks every box as a crowd-pleaser, but he fell at the first hurdle at the World Championship and he’s on the cusp of falling out of the top 16 in the rankings now. So he’s vulnerable.
“A year out of the Premier League might be beneficial as he looks to rebuild and when he comes back stronger, Michael is going to be a Premier League big-hitter for many years to come.
“Peter Wright has been a fans’ favourite for ages but he has finished bottom of the last two Premier League tables and only won two of his 18 games last year – so he’s at the mercy of the selection panel.
“And though Gerwyn Price hasn’t had a great year, there’s still a geographical element to the make-up of the eight-player field.
“A Premier League night in Cardiff with Gezzy on stage is still a fantastic atmosphere and he’s still a top-10 player so for me he comes to the party again.
“That leaves the likes of Nathan Aspinall, Chris Dobey, Mike De Decker, Damon Heta, Jonny Clayton and Dave Chisnall competing for the remaining spots.”
Inside Littler's massive rise
LUKE LITTLER has taken the darts world by storm since exploding onto the scene at the PDC World Championship at the beginning of the year.
The Nuke reached the final on his Ally Pally debut at just 16 years of age – smashing records along the way.
He has then gone on to win a host of PDC events and the Premier League title – which he claimed at the O2 Arena by beating world champion Luke Humphries in May.
He also finished his first season in the World Series as the No1 ranked player.
He has joined Jude Bellingham on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list.
And the teenage titan even had to snub an invite from the WWE.
The Sun exclusively revealed that Littler is plotting to create a fitness empire.
He is also cashing in away from the Oche thanks to an Instagram side hustle.
And he’s even the face of a brand new cereal.
But he is newly single after splitting from girlfriend Eloise Milburn following a 10-month relationship.
Check out all of our latest Luke Littler stories.