Luke Littler beat home favourite Jonny Clayton to finally seal his first Premier League night win of 2026 and become the fifth winner in as many weeks.
It has taken until week five in Cardiff for the back-to-back world champion and world No.1 to get off the mark and climb into 3rd place in the Premier League table. ‘The Nuke’ beat league leader Clayton in the final after ending fellow Welshman Gerwyn Price’s home night in the semi-final.
The high-scoring nature of the final was brilliant with Littler at one point trailing 4-3 with a 114 average. But he turned the game around to win 6-4.
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Clayton put up an average of over 100 in defeat as ‘The Ferret’ hit six 180s, but it was the consistency of his scoring that let him down.
After Clayton went five darts in the nine, Littler held his nerve and throw to reel in the Big Fish for the second time in the night as he continued to reply to Clayton holding throw by ticking off his own legs.
Littler went eight darts into his own attempt at the nine darter but missed D15 by the width of a wire. But the world champion somehow didn’t even get the chance to return to win the leg as Clayton took out 41 in two darts – leaving Littler smiling and shaking his head.
But the teenager hit back in the next leg to finally break the throw in the game and take the darts to throw for the match. Littler was able to brush off the boos and jeers and hit D20 to win the game and his first night of the tournament.
Littler was let off earlier in the night by the amount of darts at the outer ring missed by Josh Rock in the quarter final as the world champion was outscored with an average of 96.20 compared to the Northern Irishman’s 103.72.
Rock went seven darts into a nine-darter again as he failed to find perfection in successive Premier League weeks, but it was the same result for Rocky again as he hit just 4/19 on the double as Littler won 6-4.
‘The Nuke’ had already reeled in the Big Fish as he rounded off the defeat of fellow home favourite Price with a 170 checkout. Littler was much better against the ‘Iceman’ as he averaged 111.05 and was ruthless on the doubles – taking out six of nine attempts.
In the other semi-final, Clayton extended his brilliant start to the Premier League as he beat Luke Humphries 6-4 after overcoming Gian van Veen by the same scoreline in the quarter-final.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star Sport ahead of the Cardiff night, Clayton said: “We don’t have anything in Wales. So to have Cardiff Premier League in Wales, it’s going to be hectic, it’s going be noisy, it’s going to be loud, it’s going to be singing everywhere. It is the best.
“Obviously for myself because I’m Welsh and I think Gezzy Price would agree with me, we don’t play enough in Wales. Pity there isn’t a few more tournaments there, a few majors there. I cannot wait, it’s going to be hectic and very exciting.
“Obviously it’s going to be a dream if I can win it. I’ve obviously gone to the final in Cardiff, but I lost to Peter Wright. So I need to get that one step better and win Thursday night.”