Humphries almost skipped the Players Championship 26 (Image: Getty)
Luke Humphries has thanked his fiancee after winning a tournament which he was going to skip this week. blasted his way past stiff competition at the Players Championship 26 in Wigan, making light work of George Killington, Callum Goffin, Connor Scutt, Josh Rock, Dave Chisnall, and Luke Woodhouse on Thursday to make it to the final.
Once there, he pulled out a tight 8-7 win over to be crowned champion of the event, bolstering his number one spot in the . Humphries currently sits as the highest earner in the rankings with a whopping £1,681,750 to his name in winnings, leagues above second-placed on £1,069,250 respectively.
However, Humphries admitted afterwards that he wasn’t initially going to compete in the tournament this week, having planned to take a break after a flurry of results which haven’t gone his way. Speaking to the PDC about how satisfying the win was, Humphries admitted: “It is, and it hasn’t been the way the last couple of weeks to be fair.
“As you do, you’re on Twitter and a lot of people are saying ‘No chance, he’s not going to retain his title’. You know, this is what happens in darts, you go through spurts where you’re playing fantastic and then you go through spurts where they ain’t going very good.
“You can’t buy a win. Yesterday, I didn’t want to be here. Fair play to my fiancee Kayley, because she’s like ‘Play tomorrow’ and I was like ‘No, I think it’s time for a break. I’m knackered, I really am’. But she was like ‘No, go and give it a go. You might give yourself some confidence’ and obviously she was right.”
Humphries then dedicated his performance to his father, who was enjoying his 60th birthday the same day that ‘Cool Hand’ Luke won his latest title. He added: “That one was for you dad. A nice one for him, I’m sure he’ll raise a pint for himself for that one.”
Humphries has struggled for form as of late (Image: Getty)
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The win comes as a big boost for Humphries who has struggled with form as of late. The 29-year-old was beaten during the opening round of Players Championship 25 on Wednesday by 87th ranked Jeffrey de Graaf. He also lost to Josh Rock in the quarter-finals of European Tour 12 at the end of last month, and was also bested by in the same round of the World Series Finals.
His last win tournament victory prior to the Players Championship 26 came at the New Zealand Darts Masters in August, when he beat Damon Heta 8-2 in the final. He will now turn his attention to the World Grand Prix on Monday, where he will once again meet Bunting and hope for a similar result.
Elsewhere in the competition, Nathan Aspinall takes on Ryan Searle, Rob Cross faces Luke Littler, and Raymond van Barneveld meets with Ricardo Pietreczko – with Humphries taking on the winner of the latter fixture should he succeed once more over Bunting.