Premier League Darts action comes from Leeds on Thursday night, the penultimate round before the play-offs on May 23.
Debutants Luke Littler and Luke Humphries have booked their places in the final four at the end of the month, leaving four players battling it out for the final two spots.
- Rob Cross to beat Luke Humphries
- Nathan Aspinall to beat Michael Smith
- Luke Littler to win Week 15
Cross Fired Up For Late Dart At Play-Offs
Rob Cross has beaten Luke Humphries twice in three Premier League clashes this year and thumped the world champion 6-2 when they met at the European Grand Prix three weeks ago.
The Englishman, gallantly trying to defy the odds by making the top four in the Premier League, has reached the final of the past two Thursday night heats, losing to Luke Littler on each occasion.
Voltage has probably left himself too much to do but he is clearly going down swinging.
And Cross has to be encouraged by the fact that the world No.1 has won only two matches since Week 8, including a 6-5 loss at his own hands in Aberdeen last week.
ROB CROSS TO BEAT LUKE HUMPHRIES
Asp To Poleaxe Smith In Crunch Tie
Nathan Aspinall versus Michael Smith, third against fifth, is a titanic quarter-final which will have repercussions.
Smith almost certainly needs to win it to stay in the hunt for the top four while Aspinall could find himself down in fifth by the end of the evening, if this match and others go wrong for him.
The stakes are sky-high and Smith has to be feeling bullish after winning a Players Championship event in Germany on Monday, despite being inconvenienced by gout.
Aspinall didn’t fly out to Hildesheim as he focuses on this crunch clash against one of his best pals. The Asp won their last meeting - 6-4 in the Week 12 final in Rotterdam - and should be trusted to show his renowned fight when the going is at its toughest.
NATHAN ASPINALL TO BEAT MICHAEL SMITH
Super Slick Littler To Land Hat-Trick
Luke Littler had to wait until Week 9 to land his first Thursday night Premier League success - and has now triumphed four times in six weeks.
Now, after wins over the last two Thursdays in Liverpool and Aberdeen, he can land the hat-trick in Leeds.
Drawn against Peter Wright in the quarters, you can pencil the teenager in for the semi-finals so poorly is Snakebite performing. And once he is up and running the youngster is proving incredibly hard to stop.
Littler, assuming he takes care of Wright, would meet either Michael van Gerwen or Gerwyn Price in the semis, the former throwing inconsistently and the latter not having thrown at all for a fortnight because of a back injury.
