BUNTING SILENCES DOUBTERS WITH PREMIER LEAGUE WIN
26/02/2026 By Aaron Nijjar
STEPHEN BUNTING hit back at his doubters after storming to victory on Night Four of the Premier League.
‘The Bullet’ claimed the £10,000 top prize in Belfast as he beat Gian van Veen 6-2 in the final.
World No.6 Bunting ended his run of THREE straight defeats and climbed to fifth in the table.
Former Masters champ Bunting kick-started his campaign with an impressive 6-4 victory over Luke Humphries, firing in a superb 106.63 average.
He then thrashed Jonny Clayton 6-0 in the semi-final with a blistering 106.09 average at the SSE Arena.
Bunting admitted last year’s painful losing streak helped forge the mentality that carried him to glory.
He said: “Last year – losing seven or eight games on the bounce – really helped me. It gave me a lot of experience in this field.
“When you are playing in the Premier League, you are facing the best of the best.
“I am overjoyed by this win. It will rank up there win one of my best wins. I was a bit emotional after my first game but I held it together.
“Every time I step up, I still believe I am one of the hardest players to beat. People find their best game and I always seem to lose to the winner.
“Tonight I am the winner. I have come off social media, have a great team around me and I am not looking at the negatives. I had hypnotherapy this morning.
“I believe I am one of the best players in the world and deserve to be in the Premier League. This goes a long way to showing I should be here.
“Everybody was writing me off before the tournament.
“There was people saying I shouldn’t be in it. But I know how hard I work behind the scenes.”
Clayton was clinical on the outer ring, landing six of his 12 attempts at double to secure a 6-3 victory over Luke Littler in their opener.
Van Veen shrugged off a stunning nine-darter from Josh Rock in his beloved home city to power his way to a dominant 6-2 quarter-final victory.
The Dutchman fired in a stunning 105.22 average and produced a brilliant 160 checkout to edge out Gerwyn Price 6-5 in a thrilling last-four clash.
Price averaged a stellar 100.88 and hit a 102 checkout to overcome Michael van Gerwen 6-5 in the last eight.
‘Rocky’ received a special set of golden darts worth £30,000 from BetMGM as a reward for landing the perfect leg.
Image by Taylor Lanning.
