Image: dpa
LONDON. Luke Humphries stopped Luke Littler’s darts fairytale in London and became world champion for the first time. The Englishman defeated the 16-year-old challenger and compatriot 7:4 in a thrilling final on Wednesday evening and, after the biggest success of his career to date, can look forward to prize money of 500,000 pounds (almost 600,000 euros).
The 28-year-old Humphries prevented Littler from becoming the youngest champion in history and, in addition to the hefty check and the coronation, also receives the 25 kilogram Sid Waddell Trophy. But Littler’s crowning moment didn’t materialize. Especially because Humphries kept his nerve and took significantly more shots with 180 points than his opponent.
Littler came to the Ally Pally as junior world champion, but such a series of successes including reaching the final seemed completely unrealistic before the tournament started. Littler fueled the hype with victories over former world champions Raymond van Barneveld (4:1) and Rob Cross (6:2). The defeat in the final is now a setback, but Humphries, as clearly the best player of 2023, was also the favorite going into the important tournament at Alexandra Palace.
Littler had never been in danger at the previous World Cup. “Everywhere Luke Littler appears, he delivers,” said the super talent confidently about himself. “Nothing was difficult” for him until the final. Things were completely different against Humphries. The hype surrounding the youngster has become gigantic in the past few days and was reminiscent of the farewell to record world champion Phil Taylor in January 2018.
More and more media came to London and TV ratings in Great Britain skyrocketed. Experts compared him to the young Lionel Messi. The fans adapted the song “Wonderland,” which was otherwise sung by Taylor legend, to Littler. And football icon David Beckham personally congratulated him in a message, as the teenager proudly told Sport1 before the final.
At the last World Cup final by 66-year-old cult referee Russ Bray, “The Nuke”, as Littler is called, actually showed nerves – right in the early stages. The first set was over quickly, but the youngster got stronger and drew attention with two strong finishes (142 and 120). In a dynamic game the score was 2:2, and Littler eventually even took a 4:2 lead. Then Humphries turned up the heat in front of 3,000 spectators and won with five sets in a row.
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Source: Nachrichten
