Belfast a sea of noise and costumes as Luke Humphries wins opening night of the Premier League at the SSE Arena

As usual, it was a colourful and noisy occasion in Belfast as darts enthusiasts dressed up as George Best, Donald Trump, Super Mario and traffic cones to cheer on the best throwers in the world.

‘Cool Hand Luke’ lived up to his nickname to dispatch Michael van Gerwen 6-5 in a last leg decider in the semi-final.

Humphries had earlier beaten Nathan Aspinall 6-2 in the last eight and he breezed past Chris Dobey in the final just dropping one leg and hitting six out of seven doubles to claim the trophy and pocket £10,000.

It took Humphries seven weeks to get his first nightly win last year, so he was delighted to make a quick start in Belfast.

“It was really good and a decent night for myself. The first game I was really clinical, my scoring was good, and my finishing was decent,” he said.

“In the second game against Michael it was good in the first half and in the second half it slowed down. I kind of got away with it a little bit, he missed six or seven darts to go 5-3 up and that was his mistake. If he takes it out he probably goes on to win the game but he didn’t, I managed to scrape that one.

“Against Chris it was a weird game. It was really tough to get my scoring going but my finishing was brilliant so the whole night 60%, 50% in the semi-final and then 86% or whatever it was in the final. my finishing helped me through and I think my second and third dart was good.

“I don’t think I played anywhere near my best tonight, the first match was probably my decent standard of game, a 105 average is decent.

“I don’t think I played my best but sometimes you don’t need to, sometimes you play your absolute best and you’ll lose. I thought it was a solid first night and you can only grow on that and perform better, and hopefully next week I am better and pushing for another title again.

“I don’t want to be chasing the pack and chasing fourth (place in the league). Being in that top four now I don’t want to leave it, for me it is very important that I stay dedicated and make sure I don’t fall out of that top four from this moment on.”

Humphries admits he is playing with freedom since being crowned world champion in 2024.

He added: “I always wanted to be world champion and I have achieved that dream, so for me anything I win now is a bonus.

“You have seen that from me over the last 12 months. I’ve won three majors and the World Cup, everything is a bonus.”

“I just love playing darts. Sometimes I might not look like I enjoy it up on the stage, people think I am miserable and moany, but I love playing it this is what I was born to do. I enjoy myself up there and I enjoy winning as well.”

QUARTER-FINALS:

Chris Dobey 6-4 Gerwyn Price

Rob Cross 6-4 Stephen Bunting

Michael Van Gerwen 6-5 Luke Littler

Luke Humphries 6-2 Nathan Aspinall

SEMI-FINALS:

Chris Dobey 6-4 Rob Cross

Luke Humphries 6-5 Michael Van Gerwen

FINAL:

Luke Humphries 6-1 Chris Dobey