LUKE Humphries’ darts career so far has been built on graft, dedication and taking nothing for granted – and with Luke Littler on the scene that is not about to change.
Humphries enjoyed an end to 2023 and start to 2024 that had echoes of Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen at their very best; from October to March it looked as if he couldn’t be beaten.
In fact, during that period, he won 31 of 32 matches in majors at one point, including a breathtaking 24-match winning streak which saw him add the Grand Slam of Darts, Players Championship Finals and World Championship crowns to the Grand Prix he won to break his major duck.
The way he breezed through the World Cup of Darts with Michael Smith, and the World Matchplay in Blackpool, he will take some stopping again as we head toward the big autumn and winter events.
“I feel like I’ve worked my way from the bottom to the top, so I know that not everything comes easy,” he told DartAsylum. “I really had to work myself up the rankings.
“I think it really took my career to the next level when I won the Grand Prix. I was crying out to win a major title, I was getting closer and closer and closer, making semi-finals but never getting back to that major final [having lost to James Wade in the 2021 UK Open final], which is what I needed.
“Finally I did that and I took full advantage in beating Gerwyn Price in the final, and then I went on this mad run where I think confidence prevailed for me and I felt like I couldn’t lose. I felt every game I was playing, I was playing so well that no one could touch me.
“You go through periods in your career where you feel untouchable, and there are certain points where you feel you’re very vulnerable and you could be beaten.
“But that period of three to four months after the Grand Prix, I still sit back and can’t believe it myself the way I played.”
Even though Humphries won the world title at Alexandra Palace, he arguably lost the battle for clicks and column inches as Littler’s sensational run to the final at just 16 captured the darting world’s imagination.
Not that any of that bothered Humphries in the slightest. In fact, their rivalry is one built on mutual respect and a shared experience of navigating the heights of the game at the same time.
Humphries’ first big win arrived only seven months before Littler bagged the Premier League at the first attempt – and we are likely to see an awful lot of the pair of them in the future, although Humphries knows that won’t happen by itself.
“I haven’t been around at the top for ten years, so it’s not as if he’s come along and taken my shine,” said Humphries.
“I’ve only just started getting myself into the top echelons of darts like he has, so I feel like we’re coming through together in a way.
“I only managed to reach my bit of greatness in October, and he’s done his in December, so I kind of feel like we’re doing this together.
“That’s why we have that mutual respect for one another and you can’t not respect how fantastic he is as a person as well as a player. These kids have no fear but I don’t class him as a kid anymore – he’s got such a mature head on his shoulders.
“He’s going to continue to grow and get more experience – and the more experience he gets, he’s going to get better. So it’s up to me now to keep practising hard, to keep pushing him, because if I don’t get better, then he will – and he’ll win everything.”
Written by Steve Cotton
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