HUMPHRIES DEFENDS CALL OF DUTY DOWNTIME

LUKE HUMPHRIES insists late-night gaming with Ryan Searle is no excuse for skipping practice.

World No.12 Searle recently claimed he has not been putting in the hours on the oche since reaching the World Championship semi-finals. 

But ‘Cool Hand’, who regularly teams up with him on Call of Duty, believes the decision comes down to the individual. 

Humphries reckons there is still plenty of time during the day to put in the work. 

He said: “We always play. We play every week. I don’t see any difference, to be honest. 

“I think when we are playing Call of Duty, we get all day at home. You can practise and play Call of Duty. 

“It’s up to you whether you want to do that practising. We are not playing 12 hours a day. 

“We are playing from 8:30pm to 11pm, sort of time. The start of the day, from when you wake up to that point, is your free time to go and practise if you want. 

“That’s up to him. I don’t stop him from practising. We just play a bit of Call of Duty at night to have fun.

“I enjoy it. You feel like you are in a different world and you’re not thinking about darts. 

“You are just in this crazy world of playing Call of Duty, which is why I love it.” 

The former world champion has also backed Nathan Aspinall to bounce back after he opened up about his dip in motivation. 

Humphries revealed the pair spoke recently, with Aspinall already showing signs of rediscovering his spark following his Euro Tour success in Munich. 

He added: “I experienced that last year when I came out and said how I was a bit mentally fatigued and tired. 

“Nathan’s is another way where he feels like he’s missing something, which is probably the Premier League, He’s used to having that routine. 

“He’s at home more often than he’s not, so it’s different for him and he probably doesn’t have that drive to want to go and practise as much.

“You don’t need to practise when you are in the Premier League because you are playing all that time. Whereas when you are not in the Premier League, you can fall shy of not practising and putting the effort in. 

“Nathan is a fantastic player. One of the grittiest and most determined players on tour. I don’t think something will stick with him for a long time. 

“We chatted on the phone yesterday and he was buzzing about winning [on the Euro Tour] and that’ll probably give him that buzz back.”

Image by Taylor Lanning.