Littler makes it successive Premier League night wins

Teenager Luke Littler made it successive Premier League Darts nightly wins with a 6-3 victory over Gerwyn Price in Manchester.

Littler, who is making his debut in the eight-player tournament, won his maiden night in Belfast last Thursday.

The 17-year-old, who rose to prominence with his run to the World Championship final in January, now tops the table.

He raced into a three-leg lead against Price, who hit a nine-darter in his semi-final, and saw out the win.

The five points for the nightly win puts Littler in a strong position to qualify for the play-offs at London's O2 Arena on 23 May.

"I'm glad I won," Littler told Sky Sports. "I've definitely settled into it [the Premier League]. The first five or six weeks, I won then lost and lost. I've grown in confidence.

"There's still six weeks to go, but I'm sure if I keep getting two or three points a week I will get into the play-offs."

Littler was spectacular in Belfast last week but, despite not reaching those levels in front of a raucous 11,000 crowd, this was another reminder of the innate talent he has.

He beat Michael van Gerwen 6-3 in the quarter-finals, despite only averaging 93.15, but it was another disappointing night for the Dutchman who has now lost five of his past six quarter-finals.

Littler faced Nathan Aspinall in the semi-finals, and unusually probably had the crowd against him with The Asp from nearby Stockport.

It was again scrappy from Littler, who averaged 97.63, but two 100-plus checkouts saw him edge past the in-form Aspinall with a 6-4 win.

Price was superb in his quarter-final and semi-final, averaging more than 100 in both, and taking out 10 of 16 doubles.

Ultimately the strong start that Littler had in the final saw him get over the line, but Price has renewed his chances of making the play-offs.

"Luke [Littler] coming along and doing what he's doing has kind of changed my opinion about how things should be done," said World Championship semi-finalist Wayne Mardle to Sky Sports.

"He's opened my eyes up. He's not sticking to convention.

"Tonight we've seen more of the real Luke Littler than we've ever seen. What he did last week was great, but he won differently this week, it was just honest darts. It was just 'I love this'. I thought he was magnificent and I want to see more of that."

Elsewhere, there was a second successive quarter-final exit for world number one and world champion Luke Humphries, and the Crewe man has now lost top spot.

Peter Wright suffered an eighth first-round defeat and remains rooted to the table.

Quarter-finals

Nathan Aspinall 6-3 Rob Cross

Luke Littler 6-3 Michael van Gerwen

Michael Smith 6-3 Luke Humphries

Gerwyn Price 6-4 Peter Wright

Semi-finals

Aspinall 4-6 Littler

Smith 3-6 Price

Final

Littler 6-3 Price

11 April in Birmingham

Quarter-finals

Peter Wright v Luke Humphries

Rob Cross v Luke Littler

Gerwyn Price v Michael Smith

Michael van Gerwen v Nathan Aspinall