The coronation will have to wait. Michael van Gerwen claimed the spoils on night two of the Premier League, beating Luke Littler in a deciding leg that felt like a self-contained epic all in itself. Both men began with visits of 57. Both came back with 180s. Both men missed darts for the match. Littler, on 80, let slip two darts at his favourite double-10, and ultimately those were the margins.
Perhaps it would simply have been too neat for Littler to win his first Premier League event in the city that gave the world the doner kebab. But here again was evidence that the emergence of the precocious 17-year-old is pushing everybody to new levels of quality and nerve. Van Gerwen averaged 107 in his semi-final win over Michael Smith without – and this is a very Van Gerwen trait these days – ever quite looking that good. And on a night when every single match of the night finished 6-4 or 6-5, van Gerwen owed his triumph as much to good fortune and the tenacity to endure.
