Guilty Michael van Gerwen reckons he let himself down in Belfast and the best man lost.
The Dutchman was left dazed after dazzling form was wrecked by last-gasp blunders on Night One of Premier League Darts. Van Gerwen was majestic as he stood tall in the face of Luke Littler’s rampaging average of almost 114 to sink the teenager 6-5 in the quarter-finals.
The Green Machine was in scintillating form again in the semi-finals as he dominated World No.1 Luke Humphries in a blistering mid-match surge to move to the brink of triumph and a place in the Final against Chris Dobey. However, van Gerwen wasted his opportunity with 11 missed doubles seeing him plunge out at the last-four stage as Cool Hand went on to win the event.
Even Humphries said afterwards he was fortunate to survive the onslaught and the MVG could only point the finger squarely himself, just as he did when making the same mistakes to lose last weekend to Dimitri Van den Bergh in the Winmau World Masters. He said: “I can blame myself for this again. There was one better player and that was me. They simply have nothing to say to me, but I let myself down. Maybe that is the process I am currently in.”
Despite despair at the Humphries mishap, van Gerwen took the positive points from the night and his dazzling defeat of Littler. He told Viaplay: “It makes me very happy that I see that I am on the right track. I just have to keep this up, then I can show many beautiful things in this Premier League. I feel good. We know that I come from very far and this [Littler win]is a highlight, although I could have finished it earlier. This is the opening of the Premier League, a difficult match, because we know what that boy can do. The it gives a lot of satisfaction.”