A year of dominance: Luke Humphries' 12 months to remember

Humphries claimed his maiden major title back in October 2023 with a stunning 5-2 victory over Gerwyn Price in the World Grand Prix final.

The victory moved Humphries above Price to a career-high fourth on the PDC Order of Merit. Not many would have imagined just how high the ceiling was once he got his first major win under his belt.

It was like the victory gave him a new-found confidence and with it, his trajectory rocketed.

"I've imagined this moment. That was the greatest game I've ever played in my life," said Humphries after the win. "These titles are hard to come by but it makes it all worth it.

"The world's my oyster, it's up to me. You don't take a major title and think, 'I'll sit down because I've done it'. It will probably make you want to practise harder because when you get the taste of it you want more of it. I'm a major champion now.

"I might get in the Premier League now, Wayne [Mardle]? There's one place left for me and it's at the top but I'm going to have win a world title for that.

"The next goal for me is to become world No 1 after winning the Worlds."

Then what did he do? He became world No 1 after winning the Worlds.

But not before picking up a few more titles before then...

Just 42 days after picking up his maiden major win, Humphries went onto win the Grand Slam of Darts in 2023, beating Rob Cross comfortably.

The 16-8 victory was the first real sign of pure dominance from Humphries and sent a message to his competitors that if they were going to beat him, they were going to have to be at their absolute best.

"To pick up two TV titles is fantastic - I don't believe it," smiled Humphries.

"It feels just as good - obviously nothing can ever beat the first one but the second one does feel as good, especially the way I've played again there."

Now a two-time major winner, Humphries headed into the Players Championship Finals on a high and aimed for a hat-trick of titles to head into the Worlds with.

He completed said hat-trick with an 11-9 win over Michael van Gerwen in November 2023.

At this moment, Humphries admitted that it had been a taxing few weeks but now a three-time major champion in the space of two months, he knew he was heading to the Worlds more resilient but also with a target on his back.

"I don't know what happened there," Humphries said afterwards. "It's been the toughest three, four, five, six weeks of my whole life. I've been away so much. Away from family. Every day has been darts, darts, darts. Today I just felt it.

"In that game there I felt I had nothing to give. But I kept grinding. I always say determination, resilience, just keep going. To stand here with my third major title, I can't put it into words, I'd never ever have dreamed of winning one, let alone three. So let's go!"

While a different Luke may have been the talk of the World Darts Championship 2023/24, Humphries showed why he is the No 1 player in the world and confirmed it with a 7-4 victory over Luke Littler.

Humphries had to battle hard against his now rival to come back from 4-2 down to win five consecutive sets and claim his maiden world title and make it four major victories in a row.

He had beaten Scott Williams, Dave Chisnall, Ricardo Pietreczko, Joe Cullen, and Lee Evans on the way to the biggest victory of his career to date, cementing himself on the top of the darting world.

"I'll draw a lot from this and this will be a moment that will never be forgotten," Humphries told Sky Sports.

"I don't want to say that I've completed darts but everything that you want on the resume I've done now, so now it's now about motivating yourself to do more and more."

So far, Humphries had been through three and a half months to remember, a surge in performance seeing him pick up everything on offer.

That made the question arise: How long can he keep this going?

He answered that question pretty well starting with making it to the final of the UK Open.

This time though, he was beaten out in the big match by Dimitri Van den Bergh, who won a dramatic last-leg shoot-out for victory.

Humphries was still the man to beat and people put everything into beating him.

"I have had a long five days on the road, I am absolutely shattered. I was very lucky to get two match darts, I will obviously be gutted because I missed them," Humphries said after the loss.

"But I did my best with the way I was feeling. I gave everything, I really didn't play well."

It is Premier League Finals night and Littler and Humphries finish first and second in the table for the season heading into the huge event.

In the semi-finals, Littler defeats Michael Smith 10-5 and then Humphries beat Michael van Gerwen 10-5 to set up another thrilling repeat of the Worlds final.

Littler then lifts the roof off the O2 Arena as he takes out a nine-darter in the 11th leg of the final, the 17-year-old writing his name into the history books once again alongside Phil Taylor by finding the perfect leg on the biggest stage.

That helps him clinch an 11-7 victory over Humphries, finding sheer brilliance to beat the man he now battles for titles all the time.

Humphries was magnanimous in defeat and enjoyed another great battle against his namesake, confident in the fact that they are the best two players in the world.

They were the two best players in the world who were both competing in the Premier League for the first time.

"I was trying to stick in there but there was a big breeze coming through the stage all evening, which is so hard to deal with. That's credit to Luke. He managed it so well all night," Humphries said.

"After the break he played much better. He's a fantastic player, he really is.

"Me and Luke are the two greatest players in the world right now. I love playing him and we're going to have a lot of battles in the future.

"If you look at the season as a whole he deserves to win the Premier League."

With so many individual titles secured, it was time for the world to see how good Humphries can be at teamwork as he partnered with Michael Smith in the World Cup of Darts.

They went and won the whole thing.

Humphries and Smith gave England a record-breaking fifth World Cup of Darts title and first since 2016 with a 10-6 victory over Austria.

"I felt the biggest buzz since winning the Worlds. We really wanted this. We really believed we could win it and after that first game we played, we clicked," Humphries told Sky Sports.

"You've got a cheat code, the world No 1 and No 3 against the field, it's quite tough for everyone else but after that first game we played and we clicked. We were only worried about ourselves. We knew if we played our best, we could do it and we did.

"I just hope we get to come back next year and defend it together as champions."

Twenty-two days after beating the rest of the world with Smith, Humphries became just the fourth man to win the Worlds and the Matchplay in the same year with a thrilling 18-15 victory over the 'Green Machine' Van Gerwen in Blackpool.

With a couple of individual finals without victory but then a big World Matchplay win, Humphries showed once again his mental toughness on the biggest stage, clinching the win with a sensational tops-tops finish.

"I am really blessed to be up on this stage in this great sport. To put my name on the Phil Taylor Trophy means the world to me," he said.

"I've just got to a level where I feel really comfortable. I've worked incredibly hard on my game and this is the reward I get for it."

Just a year earlier, Humphries' dominance began in Leicester at the World Grand Prix. Fast forward to 2024 and he found himself in the final once again.

Although this time he was beaten in an epic by Mike De Decker, Humphries admitted it was not his night.

Indeed, before the tournament began, Humphries was honest in his assessment of how long he can continue to dominate for.

"If I didn't win the World Grand Prix, the last 12 months could have been completely different for me, but it gave me the confidence to win a lot more, and I'll always be grateful for that.

"I've made eight or nine major finals in 12 months which is something quite incredible, and something I may not be able to do again!

"It's incredibly tough, but I just want to keep working hard, playing well and I will try to lift as many major titles as I can.

"I won't be putting too much pressure on myself to try and retain every trophy that I've won, because it's going to be almost impossible to replicate what I did last year."