Humphries and Cross both hit 9 darters on an incredible night in Brighton – 2025 Premier League Night 5 Recap

Both Luke Humphries and Rob Cross hit 9 darters on Night 5 of the 2025 Premier League, however, neither player won the evening’s action.

Quarter-Finals

Michael van Gerwen kicked off the night’s action against Gerwyn Price. Despite missing doubles in the opening leg, it was the World Number Three who raced into an early 3-0 lead, pinning a 109 checkout to do so. Price couldn’t recover from his early deficit with ‘MvG’ running out a 6-3 winner.

Luke Littler was crowned UK Open champion just last Sunday, and was looking to extend his winning run and get to the top of the Premier League pile, his opponent was Chris Dobey. The game was strictly poised at five apiece going into the final leg, but, Dobey’s poor set-up play allowed the World Champion to pin a 110 checkout on double twenty to win 6-5.

The game between Luke Humphries and Rob Cross was the highlight of the night, with the World Number One hitting the first 9 darter of the 2025 Premier League. After a frantic celebration, Humphries and Cross managed to compose themselves to produce a high-quality affair. Despite pinning the ‘darting holy grail’, it was the league leader who ran out a 6-4 loser, his first Quarter-Final loss in this years campaign. An emphatic performance from the 2019 Premier League finalist, averaging 111.

Stephen Bunting was coming into Night Five with zero wins in the Premier League and off the back of an early exit at the UK Open at the hands of Chris Dobey. Nathan Aspinall was his opponent and there was no sympathy shown to Bunting with the Stockport slinger hitting 6x 180s and a 106 average to heap more misery onto ‘The Bullet’.

Semi-Finals

It was another repeat of the World Championship final in this years Premier League as Luke Littler took on Michael van Gerwen for a spot in the Brighton final. Despite winning all of his four opening games, van Gerwen was yet to reach a final so far. The reigning UK Open champion was looking to capitalise on the early exit of table topper Luke Humphries and did so far in sublime style, punishing the sub-par performance from the seven-time Premier League Champion to reach back-to-back finals.

What’s better than one 9 darter? Two! Rob Cross was the victim of the perfect leg in his quarter-final clash against Luke Humphries but replied in his semi-final tie with his own 9 darter, his first on TV.

However, Cross faced the same fate as his countryman, losing the match after hitting the holy grail, with Nathan Aspinall booking his spot in a final once more.

Final

It was destined to be a brilliant contest between Luke Littler and Nathan Aspinall for maximum points on Night Five of the 2025 Premier League.

The opening two legs went on throw before Littler broke the Asp’s throw in the third leg, pinning his favoured double 10.

Leg six saw an audacious attempt at a 70 checkout from Luke Littler, trying to pin the bullseye to leave 20. ‘The Nuke’ failed to checkout which allowed Aspinall to clean up and level the match at 3-3.

However, as expected, this didn’t phase Luke Littler one single bit as he reeled off the last 3 legs to win 6-3 and win back to back weeks.

 

2025 BetMGM Premier League Night Five

Thursday March 6th

The Brighton Centre

Quarter-Finals

Michael van Gerwen 6-3 Gerwyn Price

Luke Littler 6-5 Chris Dobey

Rob Cross 6-4 Luke Humphries

Nathan Aspinall 6-2 Stephen Bunting

Semi-Finals

Luke Littler 6-2 Michael van Gerwen

Nathan Aspinall 6-5 Rob Cross

Final

Luke Littler 6-3 Nathan Aspinall