Michael van Gerwen has strengthened his lead at the top of the Premier League table with victory on Week Four in Newcastle.
The Dutchman also prevailed in the previous two events in Berlin and Glasgow, and he now holds a commanding eight-point advantage in first place.
Van Gerwen was impressive throughout the evening, first overcoming Gerwyn Price by a 6-4 scoreline before he got the better of Luke Littler in a last-leg decider.
In the final versus Nathan Aspinall, Van Gerwen was 5-2 to the good before his opponent launched a fightback, hitting a 170 checkout in the process, but Aspinall was left to rue two missed darts to make it 5-5 as Van Gerwen returned to take out 36.
Although Aspinall averaged in excess of 100 in the showpiece game, Van Gerwen produced a 66% checkout rate on his doubles, as well as averaging 98.78.
Despite the tournament being less than a quarter of the way through, Van Gerwen already looks in an unassailable lead at the top, with Michael Smith and Littler currently joint second on seven points.
Littler survived a match dart for Peter Wright before winning that contest by a 6-5 scoreline, Wright remaining at the bottom of the table with zero points.
Aspinall has brought himself back into contention for the playoffs with a three-point haul, moving to within three points of Rob Cross who defeated world champion Luke Humphries in the quarter-finals. body check tags ::
