2009 Premier League Darts

The 2009 Whyte & Mackay Premier League was a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation.

The tournament kicked off at the Echo Arena Liverpool, which hosted the biggest ever crowd for a PDC event of almost 8,000 in 2008.

New venues in Edinburgh and Exeter joined some of the UK's biggest arenas, including Belfast's Odyssey Arena, Manchester's MEN Arena, Birmingham's National Indoor Arena, the Sheffield Arena and Newcastle's Metro Radio Arena.

The tournament came to a conclusion with the play-offs on Monday 25 May at the Wembley Arena – coinciding with the Football League play-offs at the neighbouring Wembley Stadium over the same weekend. Phil Taylor was defending his Whyte & Mackay Premier League title once again, however he failed to retain it after losing to Mervyn King 10–6 in the semi-finals. James Wade beat King 13–8 in the final, to claim the £125,000 first prize and the first Premier League not to be claimed by Taylor.

Qualification
The top six players from the PDC Order of Merit following the 2009 PDC World Darts Championship were confirmed on 5 January. Jelle Klaasen and Wayne Mardle were named as the two Sky Sports wild card selections on 9 January.

Qualifiers are as follows:


 * 1) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Phil Taylor
 * 2) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 James Wade
 * 3)  Raymond van Barneveld
 * 4) 🇨🇦 John Part
 * 5) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Terry Jenkins
 * 6) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Mervyn King
 * 7) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Wayne Mardle
 * 8)  Jelle Klaasen

Venues
Fifteen venues were used in the 2009 Premier League, with the only changes from 2008 being Edinburgh and Exeter replacing Plymouth and Bournemouth.

Prize money
The prize fund increased again with the top prize now reaching £125,000, and the total prize fund rising to £400,000.

Results

 * Players in italics are challengers, and games involving them are best of 12 legs, not best of 14 as the regular matches, and they also don't count towards the standings.

5 February – Week 1
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Echo Arena, Liverpool

12 February – Week 2
Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh

19 February – Week 3
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ricoh Arena, Coventry

26 February – Week 4
Odyssey Arena, Belfast

5 March – Week 5
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne

12 March – Week 6
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 MEN Arena, Manchester

19 March – Week 7
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Brighton Centre, Brighton

26 March – Week 8
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 National Indoor Arena, Birmingham

2 April – Week 9
SECC, Glasgow

9 April – Week 10
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Westpoint Arena, Exeter

16 April – Week 11
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Trent FM Arena, Nottingham

23 April – Week 12
AECC, Aberdeen

30 April – Week 13
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Sheffield Arena, Sheffield

7 May – Week 14
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Cardiff International Arena, Cardiff

Play-offs – 25 May
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Wembley Arena, London

Table
Top four qualify for Play-offs after Week 14.

NB: LWAT = Legs Won Against Throw. Players separated by +/- leg difference if tied.

Streaks
NB: W = Won; D = Drawn; L = Lost; N/A = Did Not Play; – indicates match did not count towards final standings

Player statistics
The following statistics are only for league stage games that contributed to the final standings. Annulled fixtures, challenge matches and play-offs are not included.

Phil Taylor

 * Longest unbeaten run: 6
 * Most consecutive wins: 3
 * Most consecutive draws: 2
 * Most consecutive losses: 1
 * Longest without a win: 3
 * Biggest victory: 8–2 (v. Jelle Klaasen, v. Raymond van Barneveld and v. Mervyn King)
 * Biggest defeat: 4–8 (v. James Wade)

James Wade

 * Longest unbeaten run: 5
 * Most consecutive wins: 4
 * Most consecutive draws: 1
 * Most consecutive losses: 1
 * Longest without a win: 2
 * Biggest victory: 8–1 (v. Terry Jenkins)
 * Biggest defeat: 1–8 (v. Mervyn King)

Raymond van Barneveld

 * Longest unbeaten run: 3
 * Most consecutive wins: 3
 * Most consecutive draws: 1
 * Most consecutive losses: 1
 * Longest without a win: 3
 * Biggest victory: 8–1 (v. John Part)
 * Biggest defeat: 2–8 (v. Phil Taylor)

Mervyn King

 * Longest unbeaten run: 4
 * Most consecutive wins: 3
 * Most consecutive draws: 3
 * Most consecutive losses: 2
 * Longest without a win: 5
 * Biggest victory: 8–1 (v. James Wade)
 * Biggest defeat: 2–8 (v. Phil Taylor)

Terry Jenkins

 * Longest unbeaten run: 3
 * Most consecutive wins: 1
 * Most consecutive draws: 2
 * Most consecutive losses: 3
 * Longest without a win: 5
 * Biggest victory: 8–3 (v. John Part)
 * Biggest defeat: 1–8 (v. James Wade)

John Part

 * Longest unbeaten run: 2
 * Most consecutive wins: 1
 * Most consecutive draws: 2
 * Most consecutive losses: 2
 * Longest without a win: 4
 * Biggest victory: 8–5 (v. Terry Jenkins)
 * Biggest defeat: 1–8 (v. Raymond van Barneveld)

Jelle Klaasen

 * Longest unbeaten run: 2
 * Most consecutive wins: 1
 * Most consecutive draws: 2
 * Most consecutive losses: 3
 * Longest without a win: 6
 * Biggest victory: 8–6 (v. Terry Jenkins)
 * Biggest defeat: 2–8 (v. Phil Taylor)