Luke Littler and
Michael van Gerwen faced each other again on Thursday night during Night 10 of
Premier League Darts 2024 in Manchester. The battle was settled 6-3 in favour of the 17-year-old Englishman.
It was already the seventh meeting between Littler and Van Gerwen in the new season, which is only three months old. With the current format of the Premier League, it is also inevitable that the top players will meet often.
Van Gerwen and Littler first met at the two World Series tournaments in January. Littler beat Van Gerwen in the final of the Bahrain Darts Masters, after which 'Mighty Mike' took revenge in the final of the Dutch Darts Masters in Den Bosch.
In February, the two darting juggernauts played each other twice in the Premier League Darts. Both those encounters were won 6-5 by Van Gerwen, who thus took a 3-1 lead in the head-to-head.
Then in March, Littler and Van Gerwen faced each other again twice in Premier League Darts. On March 14, Littler won 6-2 over Van Gerwen in Nottingham in a spectacular duel in which both players threw above 110 average. On March 28 they met again in Belfast, and then the victory went 6-3 to The Nuke. As a result of his most recent victory over Van Gerwen in Manchester, Littler is now 4-3 ahead in the rivalry against the Dutchman.
Those who have been following the sport of darts for a bit longer may remember that Van Gerwen and Chisnall also had a year when they faced each other very often. That was in 2016, when the current Premier League format was not yet being played. That makes it even more special that they faced each other 14 (!) times in one season.
It had mainly to do with the fact that Van Gerwen was leading the world rankings at the time, and Chisnall's seeding often placed him in the Dutchman's bracket. The fourteen matches between them in 2016 did not end very well for "Chizzy," by the way. The Englishman won only one, while Van Gerwen won the remaining thirteen confrontations.
Never before have two players played more than 14 official matches against each other in one season. So with three-quarters of the campaign still to go, Littler and Van Gerwen are heading for an extraordinary record.