I didn’t do Wright by a Glasgow full house
Gutted Snakebite insists he failed to punish out-of-sorts MVG to exit early at Hydro
Peter Wright declared himself gutted at letting down his home crowd on Premier League duty.
Snakebite was shattered after failing to take advantage of a below-par Michael van Gerwen and losing 6-2 at Glasgow’s Hydro.
Wright squandered 17 darts at doubles to allow the Dutchman off the hook.
And the 53-year-old was irritated at his failure to deliver for 11,000 passionate home fans who chanted his name and backed his bid.
Wright said: “I was gutted I let them down.
“Even at 5-1 down I was thinking, ‘Michael is not on it, I could still win this game’.
“I couldn’t even punish him. It was one of those games. Annoying.
“You see them on TV and and think, ‘Oh he’s playing rubbish’ and you step up. But I couldn’t find anything.
“It wouldn’t go in. Maybe I’ve too much respect for Michael, I don’t know.
“The crowd was fantastic. It was nice to see a full house and I really appreciate that.”
Wright scored well but could not find his range on the crucial doubles, having reached a ProTour semi-final two days previously.
He said: “My finishing got me out of sticky situations on the ProTour but my finishing there wasn’t great. Terrible.
“But you aren’t playing in front of 10,000 people at a floor tournament. You are playing to a home crowd and that adds extra pressure. It’s hard to deal with.
“I felt great, practice was going really good and maybe in a couple of weeks it might start coming out in the Premier League.”
Wright has no Premier League points after three losses but added: “I’ll finish in the top four, definitely.
“I wanted to win here, especially for Scotland and myself, and that’s annoying.”
Van Gerwen might have seen off Wright in Glasgow but he’s still reeling from his latest Worlds blow-out.
He lost two major finals in 2023 but his worst display was a 5-3 defeat by former forklift driver Scott Williams in the quarter-finals at Ally Pally.
At an autopsy of his flop with his practice partner and fellow Dutchman Vincent van der Voort, MVG said: “A lot of small things can make one big problem and that’s what happened. I’ve got to make sure I don’t make them again.
“It wasn’t only at Ally Pally – it happened in the UK Open, Players Championship finals and again at the World Championship.”
Van Gerwen won again on home soil by beating Luke Littler in last month’s Dutch Masters Final. He added: “You have to face new challenges, overcome them... and the best way I can do that is to answer with my darts.”