Cool Hand Luke Humphries added to his tally of major titles last night with a hard-fought win against his namesake Luke Littler at the 02 Arena in London.
The Premier League was the only serious win that had eluded Humphries after a stunning few years during which time he has propelled himself to World Number One. This most recent win also makes him only the fourth player to lift World Championship, World Matchplay and Premier League crowns.
The Englishman had gone into the final with his opponent, Luke Littler, clear favorite to pick up the £275,000, after his comfortable win in the semi-final against Gerwyn Price. Humphries had to dig deep against Nathan Aspinall to pull through winning by 10-7, a similar scoreline to that in the Littler – Price match.
Neither player was on form last night with a draft seeming to make matters worse, with a raft of stray darts affecting each finalist. In the end, it was the higher-ranked Humphries who prevailed, after a streak of solid legs took him into the lead, Littler unable to respond. The final score of 11-8 reflected the close match, averages around 100 flattering both player given their early nerves.
Although this event is invitational and doesn’t impact on the rankings, the Humphries victory vindicates those who claim that Littler still has work to do to be considered the undisputed best. It is also fitting revenge for last year’s final which went the way of the latter, and seemed to mark a changing of the guard in this very English sport.
Trading wins, as the Lukes do, is pushing standards up across the sport, the other professionals struggling to keep pace with the onslaught of incredible, and at times, infallible play. In truth, right from the first night of Premier League action back on 6th February, there were only really two guys in it. Despite six of the eight pros all winning at least one night along the way, it seemed that either of the sport’s main flag bearers could win whenever they wanted.
Even the great Michael van Gerwen failed to win any full night, something even a kamikaze gambler would have refused to bet on.
So is this good for the ‘arrahs’, as we call ‘darts’ across the pond?
Since the early days of throwing these quaint little pointy things, only three players have raised standards to a level that darts had no choice but to remain at. They are the late Eric Bristow, the great Phil Taylor and the mighty Michael van Gerwen.
Other players have dabbled with invincibility but let their guard down too often to achieve it for any meaningful duration. The top spot then changed hands with no one player achieving that Muhammad Ali aura of pure unstoppability.
That is, until now. Never has darts had two throwers capable of playing to a level above that any of the other top professionals can live with., seemingly at will. The best of the rest pick up prize money and silverware along the way and we can imagine they aren’t planning any career change any time soon. Certainly can’t blame them for that either!
What’s becoming more and more evident, though, is that the gap at the top of the game is likely to get wider, with the Lukes cleaning up around the calendar and the others living on scraps.
Third place in darts is nothing to be sniffed at, and hey, it pays more than writing about it. The thing is, if nothing changes, the foreseeable future is likely to resemble the Scottish football Premier League with Celtic and Rangers simply untouchable at the top.
For sure, nobody will be switching off, not for some time yet, but when was predictability ever a good thing in sport?
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