SMITH LIFTS LID ON ENGLAND WORLD CUP FAILURE
18/08/2025 By Aaron Nijjar
MICHAEL SMITH admits Luke Littler and Luke Humphries’ “egos” cost England at the World Cup of Darts.
World No. 1 Humphries and Littler were dumped out at the last 16 in Frankfurt after an 8-4 defeat to Germany’s Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko.
Former World Champ Smith and ‘Cool Hand’ ended an eight-year wait for silverware for the Three Lions at the 2024 tournament.
St Helens thrower Smith reckons the Lethal Lukes partnership faltered because they tried to outdo one another – instead of working as a team.
He said: “The way I’m gonna say it might sound bad for the other two players so I’m trying to reword it before I say it.
“I didn’t have an ego going on the stage. I was world No. 2 at the time and I had just come from world No. 1.
“Luke Humphries had just taken over and yes, I play him week in and week out, but I was like this is not me against Luke.
“This is me and Luke Humphries versus everyone else, so I let my ego go to one side.
“I thought he is the No. 1, he is the main player, and I do everything for him.
“I’ll do everything he needs by leaving his favourite doubles and I’ll take myself out of the comfort zone where I am not used to throwing myself at a certain treble to leave a double on the left-hand side because that is not my game.
“So, if I miss, I know I have the World No. 1 sat on his favourite double.”
Two-times major winner Smith believes that same selflessness was missing when Humphries and Littler teamed up.
He added: “This year I watched a couple of legs and I think Littler was on 125 against Germany.
“He goes for the treble 15 for double tops where nine times out of ten those are the shots he hits.
“In that situation he messed up and left Humphries 93 instead of 60 or even tops.
“That was his ego taking over – they were trying to compete against each other instead of with each other, whereas I wasn’t.
“I think that’s what helped us to win and that is what was their biggest downfall.”
Images by Taylor Lanning.
