Luke Humphries has reneged on a previous stance that he and Luke Littler weren’t playing too much. It comes amid criticisms from fans about the current Premier League Darts format, with Humphries claiming the rivalry between himself and Littler has been ‘watered down’ as a result.
The current format has been in place since 2022, with all eight players entered into a mini-tournament bracket, with quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final taking place each week. As such, it’s led to an increased number of head-to-head meetings between the sport’s top players, not least Humphries and Littler.
Humphries had previously pushed back on claims that the rivalry was being affected by the increased number of meetings, but Cool Hand appears to have taken a U-turn. After his latest match against Littler, the 2024 world champion said: “I think it has been watered down a little bit. I think we have played each other 27 times in two years, which is a lot. It is a lot.
“Most of the time it is due to the fact that we have been meeting in the later rounds because we are the best players. The Premier League dilutes it a little bit more. When we play in the Premier League, people don’t really care as much. But when we play in a major final like the Matchplay, then it is more exciting because they are big tournaments. It is not just for a league or a nightly win.”
Making a cross-sport comparison, Humphries added: “I think you are finding in lots of sports — look at [Jannik] Sinner and [Carlos] Alcaraz — they play each other a lot. It’s also because there are more tournaments as well.
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“In the old days there were 10 or 12 tournaments, really. Now we play so much with the ProTour, Europeans, Premier League and majors. It is going to happen to everybody. It is just the way it is with the format. Maybe it will change in the future.”
It’s a significant change from his previous stance, with Humphries having said last year: « I think it all depends on what you want to see, » he told Sports Boom after the match. « Do you want to see the best players in the world playing against each other, or do you not want to wait six months for it? That’s the argument. A lot of people say, ‘Oh, it gets boring.’ But I tell you what, I love watching the two best sportsmen in the world going against each other, to be honest, in [all] sports.”
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