Luke Littler reaches the semi-final of the Premier League on night five… as the 17-year-old beats Michael Smith before losing to Rob Cross in Exeter

Luke Littler reached the Premier League semi-final on Thursday night, losing to Rob Cross.

The 17-year-old was third in the Premier League table heading into night five at Exeter, having picked up seven points from his first four games.

His aim was to bounce back from his semi-final defeat to Michael van Gerwen in Newcastle last week and he started well by beating Michael Smith, who beat him on the first night of the competition in Cardiff, 6-2.

He then faced the in-form Rob Cross in the semi-final, who thrashed Gerwyn Price in their round of 16 tie, and went up against him from the start with Cross breaking him early on.

Littler, who used new darts after signing a multi-million dollar deal with Target Darts, overtook Smith on the leaderboard after beating him in the fourth game of the night, but was overtaken by Cross, meaning he remained third on the leaderboard. league. .

Littler beat Michael Smith (right), who beat him on the first night in Cardiff, in his first match of the night.

The World Championship finalist carded 140 to break Smith in the sixth leg and head into the last four, with Smith doing little wrong except for two misses at the top towards the end of the game.

Littler recovered from Cross after being down 2-0, but Cross accelerated when Littler, as in the world final, got stuck at double two in the eighth leg.

Cross held on in the ninth and final leg to secure a 6-3 victory and condemn Littler to his first defeat of the competition by more than one leg, meaning the teenager took two points on the night.

Elsewhere, Peter Wright’s difficult tournament continued as he lost to last week’s runner-up Nathan Aspinall, and the Scot is yet to win a match in this year’s competition.

Wright is badly adrift at the bottom of the table, with zero points and five (an overnight win) behind Gerwyn Price in seventh.

Rob Cross destroyed Price in the third semi-final of the night, averaging 110 to set up a semi-final game against

Price scored 160 in the sixth match to avoid just the third shutout since the introduction of the current format in 2002.

It was once again a miserable night for Peter Wright, who lost in the first round for the fifth week in a row.

Cross (pictured) was in good form on the night, averaging just under 100 to defeat Gerwyn Price in the last eight.

Humphries and Aspinall struggled in the doubles in the first semi-final, despite the latter breaking the world champion twice in the first four matches.

He served 144 to lead 4-1 and took it to 5-1 before Humphries pulled it back to 5-5 and forced a deciding leg. Aspinall, however, held his nerve and scored 160 to reach his second consecutive final and continue his resurgence after a difficult start to the campaign.