Premier League Darts 2016: Date, TV Schedule and Live Stream Info for Exeter
The first phase of the 2016 Premier League Darts reaches its midway point in Exeter on Thursday in the final major event on the darts calendar ahead of the UK Open.
With just five rounds left until Judgement Night, the standings are starting to take shape, and the likes of Robert Thornton and Michael Smith are desperate to add some wins to their tallies.
Thursday's event at the Westpoint Arena will be headlined by the matchup between standings leader Peter Wright and Order of Merit pace-setter Michael van Gerwen, pitting two of the most in-form players on the planet against each other.
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Here are the current Premier League standings, courtesy of Sky Sports Darts:
The schedule for Thursday:
| Dave Chisnall | vs. | James Wade |
| Robert Thornton | vs. | Gary Anderson |
| Peter Wright | vs. | Michael van Gerwen |
| Michael Smith | vs. | Raymond van Barneveld |
Sky Sports will broadcast all of Thursday's matches, with live streams available via the Sky Go app and LivePDC.tv. The broadcast will start at 8 p.m. GMT.
Preview
Wright will put his unbeaten record in this year's Premier League up against Van Gerwen, who enters Thursday's contest on the back of a record-breaking performance in Round 4 in Aberdeen.
The Dutchman blew past Smith, winning 7-1 thanks to an absurd average of 123.40, the highest in televised history. PDC Darts was kind enough to share the end of their match:
It was an historic night for Mighty Mike, who hasn't won the Premier League since 2013 but is quickly becoming the favourite to win this year's title. With world champion Gary Anderson and Phil Taylor both stumbling out of the starting blocks, Wright suddenly looks like Van Gerwen's top competition.
Snakebite is the only unbeaten player left in the league, dropping his first points of the season in a draw against Thornton in Aberdeen. When he's at his best, he's one of the few players in the world who can rival Van Gerwen for raw scoring, but consistency issues have plagued Wright in the past.
Mighty Mike sent a clear warning to Wright after his win over Smith:
Anderson faces a must-win situation against Thornton. The Flying Scotsman has struggled with consistency since winning his second straight world title, and he enters Thursday's clash sitting just one point above the cutoff mark. Anderson is widely expected to survive Judgement Night, but a loss against Thornton could put him in some serious trouble.
Fortunately for Anderson, he seems to be rounding the corner at just the right time, and his statistics in the win over Raymond van Barneveld look promising with an eye on the coming weeks, per bet365:
Taylor's struggles since the World Championship haven't been nearly as bad as Anderson's, but he too will be trying to prove a point in Exeter against Adrian Lewis. The Power had a rough start to his Premier League campaign and has struggled to comfortably close out matches, most recently against Dave Chisnall, who nearly stole a point in Aberdeen.
Per Sky Sports, Taylor and Lewis were responsible for one of the greatest matches in the history of darts, an epic semi-final in the 2013 Grand Slam that the Power won 16-9. The PDC shared the full match highlights on its YouTube channel:
While a similar exhibition of skill is not expected on Thursday, the two always seem to bring the best out of each other whenever they meet, and perhaps such a challenge is exactly what Taylor needs.
A big win on Thursday would provide some much-needed momentum ahead of the UK Open, one of the biggest events on this year's darts calendar.
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