Jonny Clayton leads the 2026 Premier League Darts into Cardiff tonight as the tournament’s form player returns to home soil for Night 5 at the Utilita Arena.
Clayton, who has won all four of his opening-round matches this season and claimed the Night 3 title in Glasgow, sits top of the league table. He faces Dutchman Gian van Veen in the quarter-finals, with a vocal Welsh crowd expected to back him.
Van Veen has been among the top performers of the early weeks, reaching three finals in four nights, though he is yet to win one. He pushed Stephen Bunting close in last week’s Belfast final before losing 6-2.
Van Gerwen meets Humphries in quarter-final
The match between seven-time Premier League champion Michael van Gerwen against reigning title holder Luke Humphries. Van Gerwen won Night 1 in Newcastle but was edged out by Gerwyn Price in a last-leg decider in Belfast. Humphries fell to Bunting 6-4 in the quarter-finals that same night, averaging 106.63 against him in a losing effort.
Welsh star Gerwyn Price, who won Night 2 in Antwerp, takes on Bunting. The Bullet arrives in Cardiff after winning in Belfast, where he whitewashed Clayton 6-0 in the semi-finals before beating Van Veen in the final. Bunting entered that night with zero points and described himself as a rank outsider.
“Last year, losing seven or eight games on the bounce, really helped me. It gave me a lot of experience in this field,” Bunting said after his Belfast victory. “When you are playing in the Premier League, you are facing the best of the best. I am overjoyed by this win.”
Littler’s struggles continue
Luke Littler, the world No. 1, is seventh in the standings after winning just one match all season, a quarter-final victory over Humphries on Night 2. The teenager has suffered four consecutive opening-round exits, including a 6-3 loss to Clayton in Belfast where he hit only 3 of 13 attempts at doubles.
“It is a surprise that Littler has only won one match in the Premier League,” Sky Sports analyst Laura Turner said. “It is just not clicking here and there is not always a reason for it. He is now going to be thinking about it but it is not panic stations. There is plenty of time.”
Littler faces Josh Rock, who produced the 20th nine-darter in Premier League history during his homecoming in Belfast last week. Rock earned a set of 18-carat gold darts worth £30,000 for the feat but still lost his quarter-final to Van Veen 6-2.
Format and what’s at stake
All eight players compete in the quarter-finals each night, progressing through semi-finals to a nightly final. The winner takes five league points and a £10,000 bonus, with three points for the runner-up and two for semi-finalists. Four different players have won the first four nights.
The 16-week league phase runs through to the Play-offs at London’s O2 Arena on May 28, with a total prize fund of £1,250,000.
