Luke Littler overcame a stunning nine-darter from nemesis Gerwyn Price to end his hoodoo against the Welshman but missed a record-breaking fifth nightly win in the Premier League as Nathan Aspinall triumphed on home turf in Manchester.
Stockport’s Aspinall moved up to fourth in the standings with his first nightly win, beating Luke Humphries 6-4 at the AO Arena in front of a 12,500 sell-out crowd that included former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney.
Littler had not beaten Price in his previous six attempts but snapped that run to record his first victory over the Welshman since April 2024 despite a moment of brilliance from Price.
Littler was up 5-1 when Price thrilled the crowd with the fourth nine-darter of this season’s Premier League.
Price cleared out 141 with a treble 19, treble 20 and double 12 to claim his set of 18-carat gold darts worth around £30,000, but it was only delaying the inevitable as Littler wrapped up a 6-3 win.
That set up a semi-final against world number one Humphries, who blew apart Stephen Bunting 6-1 with an average of 118.43, the third highest in Premier League history.
Littler missed double 10 three times to blow the opening leg as Humphries took a 2-0 lead.
Littler responded in the third leg, only missing a nine-darter with a bad miss on double 12, and went 3-2 up before another costly error opened the door for Humphries to nose back in front on his way to the nightly final.
Aspinall saw off Rob Cross 6-2 in the quarters before winning by the same score-line against Michael van Gerwen, who was still feeling the effects of a bizarre shoulder injury he gave himself when taking off a t-shirt last week.
Come the final, Humphries raced into a 3-0 lead but Aspinall reeled off the next five before a ragged end to the contest – with Aspinall missing five match darts before nailing double four to win it.
“I had a feeling I was going to make the final a couple of days ago,” Aspinall said. “To come out on top is an amazing feeling.
“I’ve never felt that nervous at the end, honest to God I can’t say what I was thinking or feeling. It was the most nervous six or seven darts I’ve ever thrown.
“I just wanted to win so much for this crowd, the support they’ve given me the last few years has been amazing and they came out in their thousands to support me, I wanted to win for them. Luckily he missed a 170 and I won.
“It was the perfect final for me to win wasn’t it? It wasn’t comfortable. I went 3-0 down and I came back to win 6-4. That’s my career isn’t it?”
Littler stays top of the standings after night 10, five points clear of Humphries, while the win lifts Aspinall into the top four.
