World number one Luke Humphries gained revenge on Luke Littler as he won a pulsating final to win the Premier League for the first time.
After losing to world champion Littler in last year’s final, Humphries triumphed 11-8 in the repeat as the world’s top two duked it out at O2 Arena.
The emergence of Littler has often seen Humphries referred to as ‘the other Luke’ but this was his moment as he completed the triple crown of the World Championship, World Matchplay and now the Premier League.
“That one means the world to me. It’s the one I was missing,” Humphries told Sky Sports.
“I said in all my pre-match build- up the last few days that it was the one I wanted.
“I’ve done it now. If I don’t win another title I will happy, because I’ve won the three hardest ones now.”
It was the 23rd final between the pair and Littler, who beat Gerwyn Price in the semi-finals, made a fantastic start to race into a 3-0 lead.
Both players showed signs of nerves with a number of errors in a tense opening, and Humphries was able to miss five darts at double and still break back before taking out 130 to level at 3-3.
There was still nothing to separate them at the break – one that seemed to benefit both players as the standard sky-rocketed after the resumption.
Humphries, in particular, came out firing. He broke with an 11-darter and moved two legs clear with a 12-dart hold.
Another 11-darter made it 8-6 and while Littler was holding throw reasonably comfortably, he was unable to put the requisite pressure on the Humphries throw.
There were still nervy moments for Humphries and he went all the way down to double two before moving 10-8 ahead before managing to break once more, finishing on double 10 to clinch victory and the £275,000 prize money.
For Littler, who edged it 100.29 to 97.86 on the averages, a remarkable campaign that saw him set a points record in the league phase and claim a record six nightly wins ends in disappointment.
It might have been different had he been better on the outer ring, where he was just eight of 27 for 29.6%. Although, Humphries was only fractionally more clinical at 29.7%.
He can celebrate coming on top in the latest instalment of a rivalry that looks set to run and run but that will be put on hold soon as Humphries and Littler prepare to team up for England at the World Cup of Darts in Frankfurt in June.
Leave a Reply