St Helens star Michael Smith lost out in the final at the sixth night of the Premier League as Michael van Gerwen beat him with a 6-4 victory.
And “The Green Machine” became the first ever player to win three consecutive weeks in the Premier League.
Van Gerwen took a 3-1 lead in the repeat of the World Championship final, but Smith won three legs on the spin to go into a 4-3 lead.
MVG won the final three legs of the game to win the night, averaging 100.2 in the game to “The Bully Boy’s” 99.09.
The reigning Premier League champion picked up five points for his win, extending his lead at the top of the table to 20 points, eight points clear of Smith in second.
Speaking after his win, van Gerwen said: “I feel good, I feel comfortable.
“If you look to the table I’m in a comfortable position and that’s where you want to be.
“I’ve won three now, we’re on week six and there’s still 11 or 12 to go, so onto the next one.”
Smith started the night by beating Dimitri Van den Bergh 6-3 in the quarter finals.
He took a 3-0 lead before “The DreamMaker” brought it back to 3-2 with a 127 checkout in the fifth leg.
The World Champion took out 122 in the following leg before Van den Bergh held throw to close the gap to 4-3.
In the final leg, Smith broke throw to win the match and set up a semi-final clash with Nathan Aspinall.
“The Asp” beat Chris Dobey 6-4 in the quarter finals, hitting 100% of his doubles in the process.
Aspinall beat Smith in the quarter finals last week with a 6-3 victory, but this week Smith came out on top in a 6-2 win.
Both players held throw in the opening five legs before Smith reeled off four legs on the bounce to see off “The Asp”.
In the other half of the draw, Michael van Gerwen started his night by beating Jonny Clayton 6-2 in the quarter finals.
“The Green Machine” went into a 4-1 lead before “The Ferret” pulled one back for 4-2. Van Gerwen won the last two legs to take the match.
He faced Peter Wright in the semi-finals after “Snakebite” beat Gerwyn Price in a last leg decider in the quarter finals to win his first game of the tournament.
Wright was beaten in the semi-finals by MVG 6-1.
The game was level after the first two legs, but Van Gerwen booked his place in the final after winning five legs on the spin.
Smith remains second in the table with 12 points after picking up three points for making the final.
Next week, “The Bully Boy” will start his night with a quarter-final tie against Chris Dobey.
“Hollywood” won the opening night of the Premier League but has failed to win a game in the tournament since and sits seventh in the table.
Featured image credit: Taylor Lanning/PDC
