"I honestly do believe I’m one of the best players in the world. I believe I deserve to be in this Premier League": Emotional Stephen Bunting silences critics in Belfast
PDCFriday, 27 February 2026 at 06:00
What an evening for Stephen Bunting. In a raucous SSE Arena, he opened Night 4 of the Premier League Darts with his highest average ever in the competition and ended the same night with the weekly title in hand. For the St Helens thrower, it felt not just like a win, but like a release.
Bunting was too strong for Gian van Veen in the Night 4 final of the Premier League Darts, winning 6–2.
“What a wonderful night,” Bunting said. “I think, in many ways, last year really helped me. Obviously losing seven or eight on the bounce – losing seven or eight on the bounce last year really helped me, to be honest. It gave me a lot of experience in this field. When you're playing in the Premier League, you're playing against the best of the best.
“Overjoyed, to be honest. What a win. This has got to rank up there as one of the best wins of my career. I was a bit emotional early on after my first game, but I held it together. I’m really happy with the performance. The crowd was unbelievable.”
Learning from setbacks
The road to this moment was anything but simple. Last year, Bunting endured a gruelling spell in the Premier League, losing several matches in a row – an experience he now sees as formative.
“Losing seven or eight on the bounce last year really helped me, to be honest. It gave me a lot of experience in this field. When you're playing in the Premier League, you're playing against the best of the best.”
The Premier League is unforgiving. Margins are thin and quality is relentless. Bunting often found himself edged out by players producing their very best.
Stephen Bunting won Night 4 of the Premier League Darts 2026
“I still believe I’m one of the hardest players to beat, but people find a way and play their best game. I always seem to lose to the winner – and tonight I’m the winner, so no one can beat me.”
Keeping emotions in check
The emotion of the occasion was clear. “I was a bit emotional early on after my first game, but I held it together,” he admitted.
In previous weeks, performances had been solid, yet results did not follow. This time, the crucial moments went his way.
Mental resilience
Remarkably, Bunting refused to allow his confidence to dip during the tougher weeks.
“Do you know what? I’ve come off social media. I’ve got a great team behind me. I’m not looking at the negatives, I’m looking at the positives.”
He even sought extra mental reinforcement on matchday morning. "I had hypnotherapy this morning at eight o’clock and we always think positive. Even over the last three weeks when it’s not been going well and I’ve not been getting the results, I felt like I played well on the European Tour, felt great on the ProTour, got to a final – I just ran out of steam in the final.
“I honestly do believe I’m one of the best players in the world. I believe I deserve to be in this Premier League and this goes a long way to showing why I should be here.”
Balancing family and elite sport
Behind the scenes, Bunting is balancing elite-level darts with family life.
“I’m the only darts player at the moment who’s got a one-year-old son at home, so I’ve got to juggle family life as well.”
On whether the pressure had lifted, he was honest:
“I never felt like the pressure was on – I did last year, I’ll admit that. But I think this year I’ve worked really hard. I’ve got a lovely family at home.
“The fans in here tonight – wow. For them to stick by me through thick and thin, everything I’ve been through, the adversity, coming out of that dark cloud – these are the nights that I play for. Thank you very much.”
Colleagues and camaraderie
Bunting also made a point of praising his fellow professionals, including Josh Rock. “Josh Rock is one of the best players in the world and he’s struggling at the moment, but things will come good. You saw him tonight at 9:30, the place was electric.
“I love Josh to bits. I love every lad in this tournament – they’re all top lads.”
And perhaps the biggest shift was internal.
“Thankfully now I’ve got that monkey off my back, whatever you call it. I can relax. I’m so happy with this win. Words can’t describe it, to be honest."
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- i can't answer this definitively, but i can make some suggestions. firstly, these are essentially just glorified qualifiers for TV events which double as helping the lesser players on tour make a living, but they aren't really considered that significant. they weren't even streamed until the past decade or so. most casual fans don't even know they exist and getting an audience in might be difficult. i'm assuming they're currently quite cheap to run and they would need to sell a lot of tickets to justify opening them up into more of a spectacle. they're held on weekdays when most people are at work anyway and there's no room on the calendar to put most of them on weekends. the logistics of presenting it to an audience would also be tricky given that they have to get through 7 rounds containing 128 players in a single day, using loads of stages simultaneously. maybe the uk open could be used as a template but it'd need to be even more condensed into a short time period, and even with the uk open it's hard to follow most of the games. the venues they're currently held at wouldn't cater for turning this into a public event as they're pretty small, so they'd need to hire much bigger venues 30 times in places around the country. it just probably isn't feasible. i also suspect the players don't really want to play in front of drunk audiences in every single domestic tournament, they already have the euro tour, world series and majors for that. the players championship is basically a way for players to demonstrate they're ready to make the step up to those levels of competition.colt26-02-2026
- Hi, can someone explain why the Players Championship takes place behind closed doors? I've been watching the big championships on and off for decades, but only just started taking a keener interest in the game, and this strange looking competition is a bit of a head scratcher to me at the moment.MrMarkWatsonnonotthatone25-02-2026
- Not Noppy. Get Beau in.medinabello25-02-2026
- If I was noppert,I'd say,sod you lot. You don't think I'm good enough,but suddenly,I can be a replacement? What a load of rubbish. Either you're in,or not. I keep saying,it's a pointless league,just to get people on seats,and beer down their necks. Scrap the whole thingrick6724-02-2026
- Exactly! Did the Glasgow punters get a partial refund for missing out on a potentially explosive match up? I don't know but I doubt it. Given the existing set up, how about this? Four reserves, one European based player to cover the four overseas rounds (including Dublin) and three UK based players to cover four UK rounds each (including Belfast). If the number of continental rounds changed to four for instance then Dublin could be transferred to the UK players allocation for convenience. All reserves should have their travel and accommodation costs covered and to make it worth their while, if they are not used, the reserve could play a match with a LOCAL non tour card holding player between the semi finals and final. This local player would be chosen by a prior qualifying tournament. The prize for this game could be £/euros 1000 or 2000 as the reserve could be spending his time and effort doing an exhibition instead not that I know what the commercial rate for an exhibition is! If the reserve is used in the main competition then the winner and the runner up of the qualifier can play. This could generate additional local interest and publicity. Obviously this doesn't cover every "what if" scenario i.e. What if two main players pull out? Maybe a second of the four reserves could be chosen at random? What do you think?OldShakey23-02-2026
- what a load of crocmedinabello19-02-2026
- So,it's a rubbish league,waste of time. Just put 8000 people in a building every Thursday,get them all drunk,and wonder why it's a complete joke. And forget every other player apart from 8. It's a ridiculous,inane,and needless so called competition.rick6718-02-2026
- Sorry,I've never been a professional darts player,but obviously from your comment,you have. So, going to your reply, you're blaming the management,not the player? So in that respect,he should get a different manager? That's basically all your comment is saying. Don't let him do money makers,which Barney said is easy money, instead of tournaments? Shake hands instead of trophies? Well I guess the manager knows best,as he has a big cut!rick6716-02-2026
- Sorry Mr rick67, erm what punditry credentials do you have to comment on a pundit? There's a reason why many top professionals have management teams. They know how to manage schedules etc so the players can just play. And how is Edgar wrong? Last year MVG failed to qualify by missing too many tournaments and underperforming. He's repeating the error this year so Edgar is right In calling this out.BandB15-02-2026
- Just get of Mardle,I didn't pay to watch him,and I don't want him for free! Let's see,how many world champions,either code,did you win? None! Now mason does it more as a player who was a floor player than you were putting pineapple on your shirt. Mardle,just go,you over inflated ego may follow. Tell you what,get on the seniors tour,and show everyone how good you weren'trick6715-02-2026
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