Luke Humphries returned to the winner's circle on Wednesday, sealing Players Championship 28 and admitting he used the event as practice after barely playing in recent months. The win, which saw him defeat Brendan Dolan in the final, marked his third ProTour title of the season and provided a timely confidence boost ahead of the Hungarian Darts Trophy in Budapest this weekend.
"Obviously today was, well yesterday was more like just, well today, yesterday and today was more like just getting a bit of practice in, you know, because obviously I realised that I'd actually only played one game of darts since the US Darts Masters, like two months ago," Humphries said post-final. "I felt really rusty yesterday and I played okay and then, you know, today I didn't feel like my throw was very natural, it felt a lot snatchy, it was so frustrating because it felt hard work, but when you've got on a win, you kind of, it's a weird feeling because I don't feel like I played very well today, but I got the win."
The world number two also admitted to struggling with fatigue after a long layoff, which included an early exit at the World Matchplay. "I struggled. I think you see it in the final there, like my arm had literally just almost fell off, it was so hard, I was like pushing and pulling and just, yeah, like my arm was so tired," he explained. "I can't lie and say that today was easy, it was really, really tough and maybe I got away with a few results and maybe even got away with one a little bit there, but, you know, I think that, you know, sometimes you just got to ride your luck."
Humphries had a nervy moment in the final when he attempted a 60 and went outside the board, leaving himself just one match dart. He recovered to seal the win with a 140, 140, 180 combination in the next leg. "That dart for 60, I just honestly, I think I've done it before, I don't know why I do it," he said. "I felt like the pressure got a little bit onto me at the end, I felt like I was trying too hard to close the game out and Brendan's one of them players, he's so steady, so solid."
With the win, Humphries returns to world number two, but he knows catching Luke Littler is a tall order. "I think I'm about two million away from Luke, so I think the only way anybody does that is if they win back-to-back world championships," he said. "Obviously for me, I'm not really fighting for number two because I've been number one, been number two, you know, been number three, number four, it doesn't bother me." He added: "I don't want him to have to clean sweep, as much as everyone would love to see it, I'd love to win one this year and go into the World's in a bit of confidence."
