Luke Humphries

Nicknamed "Cool Hand Luke" in reference to the 1967 film, he is also the reigning World Grand Prix champion, Grand Slam champion, and Players Championship Finals champion.

Luke Humphries (born 2 March 1995) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is the current World No. 1 and World Champion.

Luke Humphries was born on 2 March 1995 in Newbury, Berkshire and grew up there.

He later moved to Crewe, Cheshire.

His father, a Leeds United FC fan, named him Luke as an acronym for "Leeds United, Kings of Europe".

Humphries himself also became a fan of the team.

Humphries won five PDC Development Tour titles in 2017, finishing top of the Development Tour Order of Merit.

He previously worked as a roofer and retired in 2018 to pursue darts full-time.

As a result of this, he qualified for the 2018 PDC World Darts Championship where he lost to Jeff Smith, and received a PDC Tour Card for the 2018 and 2019 season.

He also won the 2019 PDC World Youth Championship.

Humphries won the Development Tour Order of Merit in 2019, a year which culminated in a fantastic run at the 2019 World Championship for Humphries.

He beat Adam Hunt, Stephen Bunting, Dimitri Van den Bergh, and defending champion Rob Cross, before eventually losing 1–5 to Michael Smith in the quarter-finals.

Following Gary Anderson's withdrawal from the 2019 Premier League, Humphries was selected as one of nine 'contenders' to replace him.

He played a one-off match against Gerwyn Price on night four in Exeter.

At the age of 24 Humphries won the 2019 PDC World Youth Championship, where he beat Adam Gawlas 6–0.

In the 2020 World Championship, Humphries once again reached the quarter-finals before losing 3–5 to eventual champion Peter Wright.

Humphries was once again selected for the Premier League, this time under the tag of 'challenger'.

He faced Gary Anderson in Exeter and became the first challenger to win their game.

In the 2021 World Championship, Humphries suffered a shock 2–3 first-round defeat to veteran Paul Lim.

Luke Humphries made his first major televised final at the 2021 UK Open in March 2021.

His run to the final saw him claim wins over Dave Chisnall in the quarter-final and then-reigning champion Michael van Gerwen in the semi-final.

He was defeated 5–11 by James Wade in the final.

In the 2022 World Championship, Humphries reached his third quarter-final in four years before losing 2–5 to Gary Anderson.

Humphries reached his first PDC European Tour final at the 2022 German Darts Grand Prix by beating Jeffrey de Zwaan, Michael Smith, Wesley Plaisier and Michael van Gerwen.

He beat Martin Lukeman in the final, hitting double 4 to win 8–2.

In the 2023 World Championship, Humphries reached the fourth round before losing 1–4 to Stephen Bunting.

In October 2023, Humphries won his first major title at the 2023 World Grand Prix, defeating tournament favourite Gerwyn Price, 5–2 in the final.

The £120,000 prize money earned through this victory, saw him move into a career-high fourth in the Order of Merit.

He won his second major televised title, 42 days later, at the 2023 Grand Slam of Darts, defeating Rob Cross 16–8 in the final, averaging an impressive 104.69.

Humphries won his third televised title at the 2023 Players Championship Finals, defeating Michael van Gerwen (who hit a nine-dart finish) for the first time in his career, 11–9 (Van Gerwen also missed eight darts at doubles in the 19th leg, to set up a deciding leg), before Humphries won the match on double 1.

On 3 January, Humphries won the PDC World Darts Championship, defeating fellow Cheshire talent Luke Littler 7–4 in the final.

For that, he was invited to meet Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Downing Street.

Humphries reached the final of the UK Open for the second time, and missed two match darts to win the title in an 11–10 loss to Dimitri Van den Bergh.

Humphries started his 2024 Premier League Darts campaign at the Cardiff International Arena in Cardiff, Wales.

He went on to lose his debut match to Luke Littler 6–2.

After the match, Humphries wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that he felt "gutted" with the constant whistling and heckling at him during the match.

Humphries started night two at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin by winning his quarter-final match against Rob Cross 6–5.

However, he then suffered another loss to Littler, losing 6–5 in the semi-finals.

On night three at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Humphries beat Nathan Aspinall 6–3 with a 105.53 average in the quarter-finals, and defeated Gerwyn Price 6–3 in his semi-final match.

Humphries lost to Michael van Gerwen 6–5 in the night’s final.