Premier League

The Premier League 2015 began on 5 February in Leeds and ended on May 21 at the O2 Arena in London. Ten players were invitated after the World Championship. The world numbers one to four were automatically qualified; Michael van Gerwen, Phil Taylor, Gary Anderson and Adrian Lewis. Additionally, the PDC gave out four wildcards to Peter Wright, James Wade, Dave Chisnall and Kim Huybrechts. The last two wildcards were for SKY Sports to decide. Defending champion Raymond van Barneveld and Stephen Bunting got these two tickets.

It is incredibly exciting in the first nine weeks of the Premier League in 2015. Five men can still fall on Judgement Night, eventually Peter Wright and Kim Huybrechts do not come back in week 10. Huybrechts does become the first Belgian ever to make an appearance in the Premier League. Raymond van Barneveld is also in danger of relegation that week, but he picks up a point against Gary Anderson and is safe. In the second half of the Premier League the Dutchman plays fantastic. He wins six of the remaining seven matches and draws the seventh. With this he qualifies for the playoffs.

That’s not the case with Phil Taylor. After ten consecutive years of making the playoffs there comes an end to this series for The Power. He loses more matches than ever before, seven in total, which is not enough to travel to London. Gary Anderson does make the playoffs finishing third, but the battle for the top spot in the regular season this year is a battle between Michael van Gerwen and Dave Chisnall. Van Gerwen plays a very strong first half of the season in which he is not defeated, but he does lose three times after week nine and so it remains exciting who finishes top until the last week. Chisnall plays against Van Gerwen that last week and comes within one leg of finishing first after a brilliant 161 finish for a 6-5 lead. But the St. Helens ace loses the final leg with the darts and therefore finishes one point short.

In the playoffs Gary Anderson wins a thriller against Dave Chisnall. Chizzy gets three match darts in the last leg, but misses them all under the pressure. Anderson takes out a fantastic 116 for the match. Michael van Gerwen wins the Dutch battle with Raymond van Barneveld. It certainly dit not come easy. Barney takes a 7-4 lead, even missing a nine darter on double 12, and seems to be on his way to a second final in a row. But Mighty Mike finds his famous extra gear. He breaks Van Barneveld twice in eleven darts and steams through to the final with a 10-8 victory. In the final, the Flying Scotsman is too strong for Van Gerwen. In an extremely good game from both sides, it is Anderson who punishes his opponent at every chance he gets. Van Gerwen misses too many doubles and has to watch while Anderson lifts the Premier League trophy in 2015.