Luke Humphries hits second nine-darter in week ahead of Luke Littler showdown
Luke Humphries warmed up for his Premier League Darts showdown with Luke Littler by hitting his second nine-darter in a week at the Player Championship Six.
The 2024 world champion hit nine perfect darts in a 6-3 first-round victory over Andy Boulton on Wednesday.
It sparked Humphries’ run all the way to the final in Leicester, with Jitse Van der Wal (6-5), Luke Woodhouse (6-5), William O’Connor (6-3), Damon Heta (6-5) and Ross Smith (7-5) all beaten before an 8-3 defeat to Gian van Veen in the final.
Humphries’ perfect set came six days after his last nine-darter against Rob Cross on Night Five of the Premier League Darts.
Humphries found perfection in the second leg of the match with the 17th nine-darter in Premier League history and first since Littler’s in the 2024 final, taking out T20, T19, then D12 to send the Brighton crowd into a frenzy.
It was also Humphries’ first televised nine-darter, fifth overall in his career and second against Cross after four in 2023.
‘This feels amazing’ – Van Veen claims first PDC ranking title
Gian van Veen won his first PDC ranking title at Players Championship Six in Leicester on Wednesday, defeating Humphries 8-3 in the final.
Van Veen, who lost to Joe Cullen in Tuesday’s Players Championship Five final, defeated world number one Humphries in his fifth ProTour final, having previously come runner-up in four Players Championship events and a European Tour event.
Van Veen’s run to the title began with comfortable wins over Steve Lennon and Krzysztof Ratajski before coming through a last-leg decider with Connor Scutt to reach the last 16, where he defeated fellow-Dutchman Jermaine Wattimena and backed it up with further convincing wins over James Wade and Madars Razma to reach the final.
Gian van Veen beat Luke Humphries in the final of the Players Championship Six in Leicester to claim his first PDC ranking title
The final saw Van Veen race into a 3-0 lead, and the Dutchman kept his composure to deny Humphries a route back into the contest.
“After what happened yesterday, this feels amazing,” said Van Veen.
“I’ve had two incredible days here; I felt a bit hard done by yesterday and I was heartbroken after I lost the final, so to rectify that today is unbelievable.
“I’ve been playing well so far this year and my goal was to win a title; I knew I was the highest-ranked player without a ranking title.
“I’ve achieved that now and this win will give me massive confidence going into a busy next few weeks.”
Elsewhere, world champion Littler lost a last-leg decider to Dom Taylor in round two, while Michael van Gerwen fell at the same stage to Ryan Meikle.
Wednesday’s action saw two nine-dart finishes hit in the first round by Humphries and Alan Soutar in their matches against Boulton and Littler respectively.
Live Premier League Darts
Thursday 13th March 7:00pm
Humphries faces Littler in the quarter-finals of Night Six of Premier League Darts on Thursday as the top two in the world go head to head at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena.
Humphries and Littler have won four of the opening five nights between them, with Humphries currently occupying a two-point lead over the teenage world champion at the top of the table.
Premier League Darts schedule – where next?
Watch Premier League Darts every Thursday night live on Sky Sports
The Premier League continues at the Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham on Thursday, March 13 as Luke Humphries and Luke Littler clash in a titanic encounter. Watch Night Six of Premier League Darts, in Nottingham, live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Action from 7pm – stream with NOW.
Sky Sports will once again be the home of the Premier League in 2025, with every night exclusively live along with the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and more! Stream darts and more top sport with NOW
