As Seen On TV – Emma Paton Issue #01

Here goes then! My first blog! You’ll all have to get used to this because there’s plenty more coming throughout the year!

A lot of my life recently has been spent travelling all over on the Premier League merry-go-round - I can’t believe there’s only a matter of weeks left. Mark Webster and I always say to each other we won’t know what to do when it all ends, and we’ll miss being with our Sky family every Thursday! It’s been a good season so far – plenty of different winners, some cracking darts and a load of 9-darters as well, so hopefully that continues over the next few weeks.

So just like that, May is here and there’s only two regular weeks of the Premier League left followed by Finals Night. It feels like it’s gone so quick. I think the play-off race will go right down to the wire which certainly adds excitement for us.

What a ride it’s been so far – we had the night of the nines in Brighton when both Luke Humphries and Rob cross nailed the perfect leg (and both lost!), we had Littler running riot in Cardiff where he averaged 112 in the final to win the night (oh and he added his name to the growing list of 9-darters for the season too) and of course we got to go Bunting Mental in Berlin!!

And then in recent weeks, it was great to see a bit of history made in Birmingham, it felt like only a matter of time that Littler was going to get that fifth weekly win, and there’s still time for more! And maybe it was written in the stars for Luke Humphries to get himself back in the winners’ circle last week in Leeds of all places. Those two have again been the stand out players this year but I’ve been so impressed with Gerwyn Price who finally gets another crack at the o2 now. It’s odd to think that he’s only ever made the play-offs once before! Once we get to finals night all the talk will no doubt be about the two Lukes but I really think Gezzy could be a party spoiler! Already with those three qualified it offers up some intriguing stories ahead of finals night..Can Littler do it again? Will Humphries get his revenge? Or is it redemption for Price?

But there is of course one final spot at the o2 up for grabs and it’s now a two-man race between Michael van Gerwen and Nathan Aspinall. Aspinall is the ultimate battler isn’t he and he won’t go down without a fight but you can’t bet against the seven-time champion can you!? Van Gerwen has been here time and time again, only once in 12 Premier League campaigns has he failed to make the play-offs, and I’m backing him to get there again!

People often ask me if I mind all the travelling but to be honest I quite enjoy it – I mean it’s not half as much as what the players do! My favourite locations so far have definitely been Berlin and Rotterdam. Berlin is always a pretty crazy one – as soon as I arrived at the hotel on Wednesday afternoon (bearing in mind this was more than 24 hours before the darts!) I was greeted by frenzied fans! I also didn’t realise how big the Panini cards were over in Germany – it genuinely seemed like everyone I saw had some of these cards! Talking of funny fans, Rotterdam definitely has my heart. Two years in a row now the crowd has shown me so much love when I’m up on the stage, always cheering and chanting when I’m on the big screen, which to be honest I always find hilarious and of course heartwarming haha !

So we’re nearly there then. We have a couple of big weeks to go – Aberdeen and Sheffield – and then it’s all eyes on the o2. Premier League finals night is hands down one of my favourite nights of the year. 12 months ago we had a record 14,000 fans packed into the arena, it was an incredible atmosphere and wow some of the seats are so high up!! It will take a lot to top that, Littler winning on his debut and nailing a 9-darter in the final, but this is darts after all, who knows what can happen! I’ll be there with Sky, and I can’t wait to see how it all plays out. See you on the road..!