Luke Humphries on verge of claiming darts' £2million record after epic TV victory
Luke Humphries on verge of claiming darts' £2million record after epic TV victory
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Luke Humphries is on the brink of becoming the first £2million man in darts after his seventh TV major title in 17 months. Cool Hand Luke edged an epic Winmau World Masters final 6-5 against Jonny Clayton in Milton Keynes on Sunday night to take his aggregate prize money to £1.9million on the Professional Darts Corporation order of merit. And the world No.1 can go through the £2m barrier on March 2 if he wins the UK Open at Minehead, where the winner’s share is £110,000.
Humphries is more motivated by titles than money, and he was relieved to win his thriller with Clayton at Arena MK, which went down to the deciding set’s last leg, to silence the chattering classes’ nonsense about his form. He said: “People forget it’s two out of three majors I’ve won now (after beating Luke Littler in the Players Championship finals in November). When you have a couple of bad performances there’s a bit of people thinking, ‘That’s it, you’re going to fall down the rankings and you’re going to collapse.’ But I’m here to win as much as I can and there’s another major one ticked off.
“Prize money is not a goal that you’re looking at and thinking ‘I need to do that, I need to win this amount or that amount.’ Everyone knows prize money in darts is going to go up in the next few years so someone is going to reach the £2 million mark whether I do it or not, but I’d like to be the first one to do it.”. Humphries is now three majors behind James Wade, the third most-decorated player in PDC history beside Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen. And although he heads to Belfast for the opening night of a new Premier League season on Thursday in the shadow of former boy wonder Littler’s feats, to date he has one more title in 2025 than Luke the Nuke.
Humphries added: “To be three (majors) away from James, what a legend he is. Two years ago I was nothing and now I’ve got seven. When you put it into perspective, to be close to a legend like James it really is something special. If I can get to that 10 mark, then I think that would be a massive appreciation for myself and my family. “Luke’s name is always going to be in the headlines because he is absolutely incredible - but honestly it doesn’t bother me.
