Stephen Bunting defied his doubters to produce three “unplayable” performances to win night four of the Premier League in Belfast.
‘The Bullet’ beat reigning Premier League champion Luke Humphries, current table topper Jonny Clayton and Gian Van Veen to kickstart his campaign after a pointless first three weeks.
This came after home hero Josh Rock caused raucous scenes as pinned a nine-darter in his 6-2 quarter-final defeat to Van Veen for the first nine-darter of this Premier League campaign.
Bunting had come under heavy criticism after losing in the quarter-finals for the first three weeks with Oche 180‘s Connor Cain saying Bunting was under “unrelenting pressure”.
Unrelenting pressure on Bunting as Premier League heads to Belfast
Emphatic first win
Bunting opened his night against world number two Humphries, who himself was under immense pressure as he sat outside the playoffs in fifth.
After four holds of throw, ‘The Bullet’ broke Humphries in the fifth leg to lead with a superb 143 checkout, finishing on double-16 to take the lead for the first in the match.
After Bunting held his throw to lead 4-2, Humphries took out back-to-back legs to level and put himself back on throw.
Bunting was resilient and took out a brilliant 123 checkout under pressure to break the Humphries throw and leaves himself throwing for the match.
‘The Bullet’ held his nerve to checkout 40 by pinning double-ten after hitting the inside of tops (double-20) to secure his first win of the campaign with a 106.63 average to win 6-4.
Demolition of the table topper
Bunting faced the early leader Clayton in the semi-finals after the Welsh number one beat world champion Luke Littler 6-3 to pile further pressure on ‘The Nuke’, who slipped to seventh with only one win in four weeks.
‘The Bullet’ produced a brilliant performance to whitewash Clayton with a 106.09 average, restricting ‘The Ferret’ to only two darts at double the whole match while pinning six out of nine (66.67%) of his own doubles.
This include a second 123 checkout of the night, finishing on the bull to lead 3-0 before making it four the next leg with a 100 checkout, his fourth ton plus finish of the night.
Bunting missed double-18 for a 147 finish to win the match 6-0 before wrapping it up on his next visit to secure the first whitewash of the new Premier League campaign and reach his first Premier League final since losing to Chris Dobey in Rotterdam last April.
His opponent would be Van Veen, who survived the nine from Rock in the quarters before holding his nerve to win a last leg decider 6-5 over Gerwyn Price for his third final of the year already.
Dart-ja vu of 2025
In 2025, Bunting went the opening eight weeks without a win before winning with a similar performance in Berlin on week nine to kickstart his campaign.
The final went in similar fashion to the whole night as ‘The Bullet’ raced into a 5-1 with a fifth ton plus checkout of the night, a 106, to lead 3-1 and punish Van Veen.
Despite the Dutchman adding pressure to reduce the deficit to 5-2, Bunting left himself on tops to win the match as he set himself up with a ton while on 140.
Bunting held his nerve to pin tops on his first dart to win his first night since Berlin and move himself ahead of Humphries and Littler to fifth in the table, two points off Price in the final playoff spot.
“It will rank up there with one of my best wins”
Bunting was delighted with his performances, believing he has silenced any critics with the performance.
Speaking to Sky Sports, ‘The Bullet’ said: “Last year – losing seven or eight games on the bounce – really helped me.
“It gave me a lot of experience in this field.
“When you are playing in the Premier League, you are facing the best of the best.
“I am overjoyed by this win.
“It will rank up there with one of my best wins.”
‘The Bullet’ believed he deserved his place in the Premier League despite heavy criticisms upon the announcement in January and set out to prove the “idiots” wrong.
Bunting out to prove “idiots” wrong ahead of Premier League opener
Bunting believed last night showcased such a feat, adding: “I believe I am one of the best players in the world and deserve to be in the Premier League.
“This goes a long way to showing I should be here.
“Every time I step up, I still believe I am one of the hardest players to beat. People find their best game and I always seem to lose to the winner.
“Tonight, I am the winner.”
Speaking to Sky Sports, former darter and pundit Wayne Mardle was full of praise for Bunting’s performance in response to the array of criticism he has faced.
Mardle said: “If that was Luke Littler or Luke Humphries we’d be talking about whether they were unbeatable or unplayable.
“He was unplayable – just ask Jonny Clayton.”
Bunting will be looking to build on this win as the Premier League heads to Cardiff next Thursday for the fifth night of the league phase.
(Featured Image by the PDC)
