Luke Humphries claimed his third ProTour title of 2026 with a hard-fought 8-6 victory over Brendan Dolan in the final of Players Championship 28 in Leicester. The win came after a week that saw Luke Littler's bid to qualify for Minehead suffer another setback, as he fell in the semi-finals once again.
Humphries, who has been in imperious form this season, had to battle past a resilient Dolan, who had earlier stunned Littler in the last four. Dolan, known as 'The History Maker', came from 3-1 down to beat Littler, landing multiple bull finishes including a 72 to go 5-3 up and a brilliant 85 to seal the win, denying the darts world a rare ProTour clash between the two Lukes.
Littler had survived scares in the early rounds, narrowly beating Stephen Rosney 6-4 and surviving six match darts against Benjamin Pratnemer. He then hit top gear with a 107 average in a 6-1 win over Martin Schindler, before seeing off Andy Boulton and Krzysztof Ratajski. But his semi-final loss to Dolan means his gamble of needing to win two events this week to secure a Minehead spot has not paid off.
Humphries, meanwhile, had an uber successful day, defeating Mike de Decker in the semi-finals, Owen Bates in the quarter-finals, and Danny Noppert, Bradley Brooks, Tommy Lishman (with a 108 average) and Mario Vandenbogaerde en route to the final. In a tense final, Humphries showed composure to edge out Dolan, who had missed several chances to take control. The decisive moment came when Humphries hit 140, 140, 180 to leave 41 after nine darts and pinned double 16 to seal the title.