Week five of the Darts Premier League headed up north into the MEN Arena in Manchester. Terry Jenkins kicked off the night up against Mark Webster, Jenkins looking to stop the rot of three defeats on the bounce against Webster who hit a 110 average in the trouncing of Adrian Lewis last week. It was Webster who struck first after Jenkins missed three darts at the double, but the Bull quickly equalised before taking out 104 to make it 2-1. Again Webster equalised but from there the Welshman just played inconsistent darts. Jenkins went onto win the next five legs to earn himself at least a point at 7-2. This somehow seemed to rejuvenate Webster as he won the following two legs but a mysterious draught seemed to divert his attention in the twelfth leg, allowing Jenkins to take the match 8-4.
We've waited five weeks for the first draw in this year's Premier League and the second match should have produced it. Phil Taylor was looking to stop Anderson's unbeaten run and quickly gained a 2-0 lead. But Anderson regained his nerves to battle back to 2-2 after four legs. From there the darts went with throw up until the fourteenth leg. Taylor had took it to 7-6 and was guaranteed a point with Anderson throwing for the draw, but the Scot somehow couldn't find the double and Taylor took out 44 to just about win 8-6.
The third match saw an out of sorts Wade take on Van Barneveld who was looking to bounce back after his bout of 'Tayloritis', but it was Wade who opened the scoring. Barneveld equalised straight away with a 107 checkout which seemed to kill Wade off as the Dutchman stormed to a 3-1 lead. Wade stopped the run with an impressive 136 but it only deterred Barney for a moment. He came back with five legs on the spin to crush Wade 8-2.
The final match in Manchester saw Whitlock take on Lewis. So far the league has proved unpredictable and going by last week's results (Whitlock winning 8-1, Lewis losing 8-2) it looked like Whitlock should win again. Although he took the the first leg, Whitlock's achilles heel was again his doubles. Whereas Lewis was deadly on his and stormed to a 7-1 lead, the highlights being a 113 checkout in the fourth leg and a 116 in the eighth. Whitlock secured a consolation but was only denying the inevitable as Lewis finished the match off in style with a 136 checkout to win 8-2.
Anderson still leads at the top on leg difference but Taylor has now levelled on points. Van Barneveld sits third with six points but Webster, Jenkins, Whitlock and Lewis are all just behind him on four points. Wade, similar to this stage last year, props up the table with just two points to his name.
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