Peter Wright had an evening to forget on Night 3 of Premier League Darts with a calamitous performance, particularly on the doubles, against Michael van Gerwen. ‘Mighty Mike’ was well below his best but still dished out a humiliating defeat in front of the Scotsman’s Glaswegian supporters.
Wright made a shoddy start to his match with Van Gerwen, who only averaged 89.63 at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow but still managed to race into a 4-1 lead, much to the bemusement of the pro-‘Snakebite’ crowd.
Things went from bad to worse in the sixth leg, when Wright worked his way down to 18 with Van Gerwen way back on 342. Inexplicably, he missed nine consecutive darts at double and allowed the Dutchman to steal in and take the leg.
Wright only managed to put one more on the board before the match was sealed 6-2 on his home turf, leaving the veteran without a single victory in three weeks of Premier League action.
After the match, ‘Snakebite’ claimed that he struggled to deal with the weight of expectation in Glasgow. “Playing in front of my home crowd here, you’ve got to add in the extra pressure that comes with that,” he said. “It’s hard to deal with, to be honest.”
Nevertheless, Wright is unwilling to give up and even issued a warning to his darts rivals, with the 53-year-old convinced that he will eventually close the gap and qualify for the play-offs in May.