LUKE & EARN
I’d like to be the first’ – Luke Humphries on verge of darts history after winning seventh TV major title in 15 months
Humphries is on the brink of making history
LUKE HUMPHRIES is set to make history as darts’ first-ever £2million man.
The World No1 held his nerve to defeat Jonny Clayton and win the Winmau World Masters on Sunday night.
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But now "Cool Hand" has his eyes set on hitting the magic double figures in Major victories.
Humphries, 29, reasserted his authority of the arrows with a staggering seventh major title success in just 15 months.
He is clear at the top of the PDC Order of Merit rankings with the £100,000 winner's cheque from MK pushing his earnings over that period to beyond £1.9 million.
Humphries now has the chance to be the first in the rankings system to hit the £2MILLION mark and can get there at the upcoming UK Open.
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But it’s trophies and not cash that drives him as he said: “It obviously would be really nice to do that.
“It’s not like a goal that you’re looking at and thinking I need to do that. The prize money in darts is just going to go up and up over the next few years, I think everyone knows that.
“It’s probably going to be a common thing, so someone is going to reach the £2 million mark whether I do it or not, but I’d like to be the first one to do it.”
In the all-time PDC greats of title wins, Humphries sits just three behind third-placed James Wade who has ten, with Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen at the top.
Most read in Darts
List of all-time Darts World Champions
BELOW is a list of darts world champions by year.
The list does not include winners from the pre-Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) era or BDO world champions.
That means Raymond van Barneveld, for example, is only listed once - Barney also won four BDO titles - and none of Eric Bristow's five BDO titles are included.
- 1994 - Dennis Priestley
- 1995 - Phil Taylor
- 1996 - Phil Taylor (2)
- 1997 - Phil Taylor (3)
- 1998 - Phil Taylor (4)
- 1999 - Phil Taylor (5)
- 2000 - Phil Taylor (6)
- 2001 - Phil Taylor (7)
- 2002 - Phil Taylor (8)
- 2003 - John Part
- 2004 - Phil Taylor (9)
- 2005 - Phil Taylor (10)
- 2006 - Phil Taylor (11)
- 2007 - Raymond van Barneveld
- 2008 - John Part (2)
- 2009 - Phil Taylor (12)
- 2010 - Phil Taylor (13)
- 2011 - Adrian Lewis
- 2012 - Adrian Lewis (2)
- 2013 - Phil Taylor (14)
- 2014 - Michael van Gerwen
- 2015 - Gary Anderson
- 2016 - Gary Anderson (2)
- 2017 - Michael van Gerwen (2)
- 2018 - Rob Cross
- 2019 - Michael van Gerwen (3)
- 2020 - Peter Wright
- 2021 - Gerwyn Price
- 2022 - Peter Wright (2)
- 2023 - Michael Smith
- 2024 - Luke Humphries
- 2025 - Luke Littler
Most World Titles
- 14 - Phil Taylor
- 3 - Michael van Gerwen
- 2 - John Part, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Peter Wright
- 1 - Dennis Priestley, Raymond van Barneveld, Rob Cross, Gerwyn Price, Michael Smith, Luke Humphries, Luke Littler
That’s clearly his next goal, adding: “People forget it’s two out of three majors I’ve won now.
"You do get the little bit of people where they kind of think that when you have a couple of bad performances that you’re going to fall down and that’s it, you’re defending so much, you’re going to collapse.
Luke Humphries nails incredible nine-darter to send fans wild with limbs everywhere at star-studded exhibition event
"But like I said a couple of days ago, I’m just here to enjoy myself, win as much as I can and there’s another one ticked off.
“To be three away from James, what a legend he is. To be close to him. I was nothing and now I’ve got seven.
"When you put it into perspective, when you can be close to a legend like James, it really is something special, so if I can get that 10 mark, then I think that would be a massive appreciation for myself and my family.”
Humphries’ glory took some of the spotlight away from his big mate Luke Littler.
The world champion was knocked out at the quarter-final stage by Jonny Clayton.
But humble Humphries isn’t bothered one bit about taking attention as he said: “I mean his [Littler] name is always going to be in the headlines, because he is absolutely incredible.
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"So, for me, it doesn’t bother me.
“I say it so many times and I’m not going to keep saying it, it doesn’t bother me.
"My name has always been great in the headlines. I don’t think I’ve not got the respect. I feel like everyone does put my name on there.
“It’s nice obviously to put up your name in the headlines of course.
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"But for me, I don’t care about that. I just care about winning major titles, and when I’m away from my family, I’ll make it worthwhile.
“It’s a fantastic win and that is what means the most, more than being in headlines.”
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