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The 2022 Premier League Darts kicks off in less than a month’s time at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff as the 18th edition of the tournament gets underway featuring 10 of the world’s best.
Reigning champion and world number eight Jonny Clayton will look to retain his title after a thrilling round of 16 tie-break defeat to finalist Michael Smith in the recent World Championship.
How does the format work?
The tournament features 17 different venues across Europe from Cardiff, Belfast, Berlin, Rotterdam, Glasgow, Dublin to London and more. The play-offs will be held in Newcastle’s Utilita Arena on May 26 where both the semi-finals and final will be played out.
10 players across the PDC circuit will face off in a double round-robin format as each of the selected players will face each other until a certain amount of losses sees those players eliminated.
During the first nine rounds, each participant will play in a best of 12 legs match with two points awarded for a victory and one point for a draw. The two players at the bottom of the table after these nine rounds, or known as phase one, will be eliminated.
Phase two begins the week after on night 10 where the remaining eight competitors battle it out in a best of 14 legs contest over the next seven rounds, with the top four players advancing to the play-offs.
On the final night in May, fourth place will take on second place while third place will play first for a spot in the final with over £850,000 at stake.
The semi-finals feature a best of 19 legs format, while the final, played later on that night, is won on a best of 21 legs showdown to lift the trophy.
Who will be the 10 selected?
The top four players in the world, as ranked by the PDC Order of Merit, automatically qualify for selection. Following this year’s World Championships, those to certainly feature will be, World number one Gerwyn Price, World number two Peter Wright, World number three Michael van Gerwen and World number four James Wade.
Theoretically, the Premier League could just choose the next six ranked players and fill up the ballot that way. However, the Order of Merit doesn’t necessarily determine the best options with crowds expecting to see not just the best, but most entertaining players.
Players ranked five to 10 are Michael Smith, Gary Anderson, Jose de Sousa, Jonny Clayton, Dimitri Van den Bergh and Rob Cross. All valid selections, but there are arguments to be made for one or two competitive spaces.
Michael Smith and Gary Anderson are no brainers. 31-year-old Smith is coming off the finest tournament of his career so far, narrowly losing out to Peter Wright in the WDC final 7-5. He is one of the hottest and most popular properties in darts right now and attracts a huge fanbase.
Gary Anderson reached the semi-final of the WDC this year, losing to eventual winner Wright 6-4. The ‘Flying Scotsman’ has 19 televised titles under his belt, including two Premier League triumphs in 2011 and 2015.
Jose de Sousa has one televised title to his name, the Grand Slam of Darts in 2020 where he became the first Portuguese player to win such a title, overcoming James Wade 16-12 in the final.
The 47-year-old was runner-up to last year’s winner Jonny Clayton and is a popular choice to feature this time around but a disappointing end to 2021 with a round of 32 defeat in the World Championships might lead some to look elsewhere.
Jonny Clayton should be one of the first names on everyone’s list. The current Premier League, World Grand Prix, Masters, Players Championship, and World Series champion has enjoyed a groundbreaking 2021.
In one of the best-televised games ever, where Clayton fell to defeat against Michael Smith in this year’s WDC, the Welshman was a match dart away from a place in the quarter-finals but it wasn’t meant to be for ‘The Ferret’.
Dimitri Van den Bergh at just 27-years-old already boasts three televised titles including the World Matchplay in 2020 where the Dutchman saw off Gary Anderson to lift the Phil Taylor Trophy.
A shock Second Round defeat to Florian Hempel in the WDC will not help his bid, but the ‘Dream Maker’ has shown more than enough quality in recent times to qualify for a place.
31-year-old Rob Cross won the WDC in 2018 for the first time, defeating Phil Taylor 7-2 in sets to take home the holy grail of darts. Successes in the 2019 World Matchplay, the European Championship in 2019 and 2021 respectively put his name right up there with the very best.
It is a shame there are only 10 spots because you can think of a further five names who are also worthy of a spot in the Premier League such as Nathan Aspinall, Callan Rydz, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Joe Cullen and Dave Chisnall.
The line-up is usually announced on the night of the World Championship final, however, this was delayed by the PDC leading many to believe they are planning to include ‘Queen of the Palace’ Fallon Sherrock in this year’s competition.
In 2019, Sherrock became the first female to win a match, and then two consecutive matches at the WDC after beating Ted Evetts and Mensur Suljović before being knocked out in the Third Round.
During last year’s Grand Slam, the 27-year-old from Milton Keynes broke further barriers by becoming the first woman to reach the last 16 of a major darts tournament and progressed to the quarter-finals before a defeat to Peter Wright ended her campaign.
After a First Round loss to Steve Beaton in this year’s World Championship, the inclusion of Sherrock might be seen as unfair to other players who have achieved more. She failed to earn a PDC tour card in 2021, but PDC chairman Eddie Hearn said Sherrock is under ‘serious consideration’ for a place.
“Right now, Fallon [Sherrock] is the flagbearer for the growth and development of women’s darts because she has the profile to inspire a new generation of women’s darts players and she is one of, if not, the main reason why that investment has come from the PDC,” Hearn told Sky Sports.
“All of a sudden we see the potential for that growth and whenever we talk about the growth of a sport it always comes through an individual, an ambassador, or a role model. If you’re going to get growth at a younger level across females in darts, she’s the kind of person that’s going to inspire that.
Glen Durrant is also a player believed to be in consideration, despite a current world ranking of 31. ‘Duzza’ took home the Premier League crown in 2020 and is a three-time BDO World Championship winner.
An underwhelming display in last year’s competition has stacked the odds against Durrant however, as his title defence ended following seven straight defeats as he sat rock bottom of the standings.
This year’s competition is set to be one of the best yet, with the standards set in the WDC proving to be some of the best darts ever seen. 10 of the world’s best and most entertaining players will go head-to-head to take home an elusive cash prize and engrave their name in the sport’s history.
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