Humphries wants legacy of glory

LUKE HUMPHRIES is gutted that Luke Littler wrecked his dream of the darting triple crown - but now wants to leave a legacy of wins. 

The World No1 delivered a sublime week of wins to take the World Matchplay title in Blackpool on Sunday night. 

It meant that ‘Cool Hand’, 29, had taken almost a clean sweep of glory with six TV titles in a year including the Grand Prix, Grand Slam, Players Championship, Worlds, World Cup and Matchplay - raking in over £1million in prize money. 

But he was still left rueing Littler’s stunning Premier League win over him in the final at the O2. 

He said: “For me it’s hard because I was four legs away from winning the triple crown. It was an inspired performance from Luke in the Premier League that stopped me getting a triple crown in the same year. 

“I can’t even think of the words for the feelings if I had got that. 

“I’m just gutted that Luke played so well in that final. I was four legs away from creating incredible history. But I’ll go back next year and try again. 

“There’s still goals. Premier League I haven’t won. That’s the only Sky Sports title I haven’t won yet. I still haven’t won the European Championship, World Series finals.

“I don’t think Phil Taylor gets the credit for what he achieved in the sport. I want to try and leave a legacy. 

“I don’t want to leave this sport as a one-time World Champion. I want it to be two, three, four, five, whatever it maybe. 

“I’m still incredibly driven. Nights like this will only drive me more. 

“I just want to be the man who’s hard to beat. If you beat me you have to play incredibly well. 

“I’ve been in eight major finals out of ten, I’ve won six of them. It’s just insane to be honest and I would never have dreamed of doing that when I walked out of the Winter Gardens 12 months ago.” 

Yet just five months ago Humphries admits he felt down after winning the Worlds because he felt he wasn’t popular. 

He added: “At the first Premier League in Wales I felt down. I felt that no one really liked me. 

“It kind of hurts you because, not because you want to be liked, I just didn’t see what I’d done wrong. 

“Now I feel there’s a bit more love towards me and it just fills my heart with joy to be honest. It feels great, it feels better than winning major titles. 

“I just want the fans to feel the talent that I’ve got. I just want to give the fans great darts. 

“There was Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price and now me. Other players will just be driven on by our success and want to topple me over.”

Humphries matched Taylor by becoming only the second player to achieve 100-plus averages in every match in the tournament at the Winter Gardens. 

But he was surprised by how emotional it became after his sensational double double tops finish to wrap up the title. 

He added: “Well it’s definitely the second best night of my life. Always the Worlds will be No1, that will never change. 

“When I won it, it felt really close to the Worlds. I didn’t expect it to mean so much to me. But the way I played this week I thought I deserved this. 

“You don’t always get what you deserve in sport, it doesn’t always go your way. But five 100 averages on the trot, no one can say I don’t deserve it. I had to work incredibly hard and beat some great players to do it.” 

Words by Phil Lanning.

Images by Taylor Lanning.