HUMPHRIES BELIEVES HE IS THE MAN TO BEAT IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE
28/05/2026 By Aaron Nijjar
LUKE HUMPHRIES believes he heads into Premier League Finals Night playing the best darts of anyone left in the field.
The defending champion recovered from spending much of the season outside the top four to seal a play-off spot with a brilliant late surge.
Cool Hand reached FOUR consecutive weekly finals, won Night 15 in Birmingham and finished third in the table to set up a semi-final clash with Jonny Clayton at London’s O2 Arena.
The world No2 is now aiming to become just the third player after Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen to successfully retain the title.
The Cheshire thrower finished the regular season with the highest rolling average in the league phase at an impressive 101.33.
Humphries insists his game is peaking at exactly the right time.
He told talkSPORT: “This whole scenario I’ve been in during the Premier League this year could stand me in good stead.
“In the last few weeks of the Premier League over the last two years, I’ve kind of been relaxed and not really had to win anything.
“I’ve just done it because I’ve been so relaxed.
“Whereas maybe because I’ve been a bit more fiery and thinking, ‘Right, I need to win, I need to put in performances,’ I’ve put myself in this zone now of being really, really consistently good.
“I’d say out of everyone, I’m probably playing the best darts.
“That doesn’t mean I win tomorrow, but it certainly helps my cause and helps my brain to think, you’re playing the best out of everyone at this moment in time.
“If you carry on, it’s going to take a really tough performance to beat you.”
Humphries also revealed the fear of missing out on Finals Night altogether became the driving force behind his dramatic turnaround.
He added: “I don’t tend to look too much into the people that doubt you or the things that people say, because it’s really on you. You can only change it.
“I got asked earlier today if the doubters and what people were saying spurred me on, but it wasn’t actually that which spurred me on.
“It was more thinking to myself, I don’t want to become one of the very rare players to be trying to retain the trophy and not actually be at the O2.
“That spurred me on more than anything.
“You don’t want to have that tag of not even having a chance to try and retain it.”
Image by Taylor Lanning.
