2012 Premier League Darts Week Two

The oche moved across the border this week and into Aberdeen. The first match of the night saw Adrian Lewis and Raymond Van Barneveld both looking for their first win of the campaign. The Dutchman came out firing and quickly took a 2-0 lead. Lewis suffered an array of abuse last year in Aberdeen but regained his bearings and took out a ton on his way to taking a 5-2 lead. But then deja vu hit as Barney began to fight back like Phil Taylor did last week. Barneveld levelled the match and then took it to 6-6. Lewis was first to guarantee himself a point with a 140-checkout but Barneveld riposted with a 126 of his own, finishing on the bull to make it another draw.

Scotland's own Gary Anderson faced Andy Hamilton in the second match of the night. The debutant isn't used to a partisan crowd against him and it showed as he missed a bucketful of doubles. Anderson stormed into a 4-0 lead before Hamilton was able to halve the deficit. But any momentum Hamilton had gained didn't help him through as the Scot went onto win 8-2 in response to his poor display last week.

It would seem that Phil Taylor needs time to warm up in games before playing at his optimum best. Taylor took on Kevin Painter but soon found himself 3-0 down. Taylor posted his first leg with a 132-checkout but that was cancelled out by Painter's 127 making it 4-1. Taylor then moved to within one before Painter again retaliated with a 123-checkout on the bull to make it 5-3. But again Taylor fought back like last week and the game was turned when The Power nailed a nine darter to equalise. Taylor then hit two double tops to lead 7-5 and then went onto post his first victory of the campaign.

The final match of the evening was between Simon Whitlock and James Wade. Wade notoriously had a bad start to last year's league and found himself 5-0 down in double quick time. That lead was then stretched to 7-0  before Wade mounted a valiant comeback. The Machine was able to post four legs on the board to make the score a little more respectable, but he is now the only one of the eight yet to earn a point.