Week two of the Darts Premier League commenced in Berlin last night with both St Helen’s Michael Smith and Runcorn born Luke Littler being two of the eight players to make up the competition.

The point-based tournament runs for 17 consecutive weeks with the top four players in the table fighting it out at the end for the coveted trophy.

In a night which broke records for the most legs in a single Premier League night with 75 out of a possible 77 being played, both Smith and Littler saw victory and gained vital points to add to the table.

‘Bully Boy’ Smith looked to follow his dominance from week one, where he came out on top. He faced Gerwyn Price in his first match of the night and the world number three just about edged past the Welshman, six legs to five, in a game that saw two 170 finishes.

Smith had to produce an all-time performance to overcome ‘The Iceman’ who produced a staggering 104.21 average, and the St Helens star did just that, hitting a tonne plus average of his own along with a blistering seven 180’s.

The following matchup saw Littler take on his World Championship semi-final opponent Rob Cross, a game in which ‘The Nuke’ came out on top in last time out.

The teenage darts prodigy took an early lead, but ‘Voltage’ remained composed despite the crowd being against him and got five legs of his own.

A sudden death leg was what decided the fixture with Littler hitting double 15 to progress to the next round.

Smith’s night came to an end when he faced Michael van Gerwen in the semi-final.

Fans witnessed yet another tungsten tussle which went to the very end, but it was the Dutchman’s dominance which prevailed with ‘The Green Machine’ averaging over a tonne and doubling the number of maximums ‘Bully Boy’ could.

Littler faced a familiar face in Luke Humphries in his semi-final matchup where he aimed to go one further than the previous week where he missed a match dart to go through to the final.

The world number one averaged more than the youngster but some clinical finishing including a 131 checkout in the penultimate leg for Littler allowed him to take control and hit double 10 in the final leg.

Littler and van Gerwen met for just the third time in what was the final of week two in Berlin.

The 17-year-old had the stronger start of the two, breaking throw in the first leg with a 94 checkout and following it with a hold of throw to go two legs clear.

The world number two showed his class in gaining three consecutive legs to go ahead for the first time in the match after some dominant scoring.

This was accompanied by a Dutch versus English slugfest where neither player could string more than a leg at a time together all the way up to the final leg at five legs a piece.

It was van Gerwen who started with the darts and therefore the advantage, but the St Helens Academy phenomenon had two match darts which he failed to capitalise on, leaving the current Premier League champion to calmly take out 25.

Even though Smith couldn’t make it past the semi-final, he remains top of the Premier League table, two points clear of Littler and van Gerwen who are sat in joint second.

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