Premier League Darts 2025: Luke Humphries breezes to opening ...

Luke Humphries got his BetMGM Premier League 2025 campaign off to a perfect start with a dominant 6-1 victory over Chris Dobey in the Night One final in Belfast.

Humphries made a rapid start in the final and in the blink of an eye was 3-0 up, 128 and 100 checkouts helping him dominate.

Dobey struggled on the doubles and that enabled world No 1 Humphries to extend his advantage with another 100 finish, 'Hollywood' finally managing to get on the board with a clutch 126 in the sixth leg.

However, that only delayed the inevitable as Humphries came back on his throw to wrap things up on tops, a remarkable 86 per cent on the doubles cementing the authoritative win.

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Although very early days, he now sits top of the Premier League table on five points.

"I think this is the hardest Premier League for a long time. Nights like this might not happen as much as you want," Humphries told Sky Sports.

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"The last two years I haven't got off to a good start, so it's nice to get off to a good start.

"I did great last year and I'm hoping to do the same this year."

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Humphries stayed strong against Michael van Gerwen to win a 6-5 last-leg shoot-out to get through to the final.

Van Gerwen fought back brilliantly with some big scoring to bring the game to 4-3 after being 3-1 down, but then dropped off and allowed Humphries to reinstate his dominance, a silky 120 checkout putting the world No 1 one leg away from the final.

With the match then in a decider, the Dutchman missed match darts on the bullseye and Humphries came to the oche to clinch 45 on D16.

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Dobey booked his spot in the final with a 6-4 win over Rob Cross, massive 'Big Fish' and 'Shanghai' checkouts helping him on the way.

In a topsy-turvy encounter, Dobey took three legs on the spin before world No 4 Cross hit back with three of his own, two breaks of throw helping 'Hollywood' pick up some big points on opening night.

MVG and Littler put on Premier League classic

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Van Gerwen started his night by getting some revenge on Luke Littler for his World Darts Championship final defeat, winning in a thrilling final-leg decider as Littler made history with the second-highest Premier League losing average ever - a mind-blowing 113.91.

In what was an all-time Premier League classic, Littler was motoring on with an average of over 121 in the early stages and took out a mega 161 for a break of throw, his doubling throughout impressive at 45 per cent.

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However, Van Gerwen hit back with a break of his own and a 114 checkout to help him move to 5-4 up, before missed match darts allowed 'The Nuke' to pin 87 on the bullseye.

With the encounter tense at 5-5 and the 180s still flowing, a stray dart into T7 took away Littler's chance to finish off 167 and the 'Green Machine' checked out 25 on D8 for a huge victory.

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In the other quarter-finals, Gerwyn Price lost 6-4 to Dobey in the opening match, before Cross held off a Stephen Bunting fightback to win 6-4 and Humphries comfortably saw off Nathan Aspinall 6-2.

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