Luke Humphries is having a bit of a rough time lately. You can tell the tension is mounting—even from here, the sound of the darts hitting the board seems to carry a sharper, more frustrated tone than usual. Following a tough loss in Brighton just a few days ago, he showed up in Wigan looking to reset, but it didn’t go his way. A 6-4 defeat to Andrew Gilding in the last-16 has only added to the questions surrounding his bid for the Premier League finals. It’s a slump, or maybe just a patch of bad luck, but for a player of his caliber, the inconsistency is starting to look glaring.
Gilding, on the other hand, had a wild day. He actually went on to beat Beau Greaves 6-3. You have to mention Greaves, though—she was the real story of the early rounds. She took out Raymond van Barneveld and even the Premier League leader, Jonny Clayton. Becoming the first woman in PDC history to reach a ProTour quarter-final is no small feat. It was impressive to watch, even if the momentum eventually shifted.
But the day really belonged to Chris Dobey. He looked like he was playing on another level entirely, really. He dismantled Luke Woodhouse and Richard Veenstra before clearing his path to the final with a dominant 7-1 win over Gilding. That’s just relentless scoring, really.
Then he faced Justin Hood in the final, taking the match 8-4 to grab the £15,000 prize. Dobey averaged 105.28, which is just… well, it’s clinical. Hood put up a real fight with a 102.91 average, but he just couldn’t stick with the pace Dobey was setting. Misryoum noted that Dobey is hungry for more, aiming to translate this floor form to the big TV stages and European events. He seems confident that consistency is the only thing standing in his way now, or maybe just a bit of fine-tuning.
It wasn’t all just about the top players, though. The atmosphere in the venue was pretty electric at times, especially when Thomas Lovely managed to hit a nine-darter during his third-round match against Woodhouse. Even in defeat, that’s the kind of moment that reminds you why people grind on this tour.
Anyway, the results are in the books now. Dobey walks away with the hardware, and Humphries has to head back to the practice board. Sometimes that’s just how the game goes—one week you’re on top, and the next you’re just trying to find your rhythm again.