Luke Humphries suffers first-round exit as Luke Littler storms through opening test at Players Championship Finals
Defending champion Luke Humphries suffered a shock first-round exit at the Players Championship Finals to Gian van Veen on Friday night at Butlin’s Minehead.
Humphries started the match superbly, racing into a 3-0 lead, and looked set to make that a four-leg advantage until Van Veen pulled off a stunning 161 checkout to get on the board.
Van Veen, who also defeated the former world champion in last month’s European Championship final in Dortmund, then eked out a lead, up 5-4, after claiming three legs on the bounce.
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Gian van Veen beats Luke Humphries 11-10 in a dramatic European Championship final to win the first major trophy of his career.
Humphries took the next to force a final-leg shootout, Van Veen missing two match darts and a further three in the decider, but the Dutch youngster would eventually win out to book his spot in the second round.
Van Veen’s victory is his fourth straight in 2025 against Humphries.
Luke Littler, who took Humphries’ world No 1 crown from him following his Grand Slam of Darts win a week ago, stormed to a 6-1 victory over Jeffrey de Graaf.
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Highlights of the Grand Slam of Darts final clash between Luke Littler and Luke Humphries.
De Graaf took the opening leg, only for Littler to rattle off the next six as he averaged 104 in a hugely impressive and ominous performance.
Elsewhere, No 1 seed Gerwyn Price beat Max Hopp 6-2, while Josh Rock defeated another German hopeful as he overcame Gabriel Clemens 6-3.
Martin Schindler did, however, get a win on the board for his countrymen, beating a limping Michael Smith 6-4 in the opening match of the night.
There were comfortable wins too for Stephen Bunting, Nathan Aspinall, Gary Anderson, and Peter Wright during the evening session.
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New world number one Luke Littler claimed it was up to other players to stop him and Luke Humphries from meeting in major finals and said his target is back-to-back World Championships at Alexandra Palace.
Players Championship Finals – evening session results
Main Stage
Martin Schindler 6-4 Michael Smith
Josh Rock 6-3 Gabriel Clemens
Gerwyn Price 6-2 Max Hopp
Stephen Bunting 6-2 Ritchie Edhouse
Luke Littler 6-1 Jeffrey de Graaf
Gian van Veen 6-5 Luke Humphries
Nathan Aspinall 6-3 Karel Sedlacek
Chris Dobey 6-1 Keane Barry
Stage Two
Jermaine Wattimena 6-3 Wesley Plaisier
Ryan Searle 6-1 Darren Beveridge
Richard Veenstra 6-5 Wessel Nijman
Krzysztof Ratajski 6-3 Raymond van Barneveld
Madars Razma 6-3 Dirk van Duijvenbode
Gary Anderson 6-2 Mario Vandenbogaerde
Peter Wright 6-3 Joe Cullen
Justin Hood 6-4 Damon Heta
Cross, Chisnall and Clayton suffer early exits in afternoon
Rob Cross, Dave Chisnall and Jonny Clayton all exited the Players Championship Finals on Friday afternoon, but James Wade made it through to the second round.
James Hurrell ensured a big opening day upset by defeating former finalist Clayton with a 99.2 average.
Wade closed out a comfortable 6-3 win over Mickey Mansell with a 94.7 average and 50 per cent on the doubles.
Speaking about the frosty handshake between the two at the end of their match, ‘The Machine’ said: “He’s hard graft. If he plays at a normal pace, it’s quite a simple game. I shook his hand and said all the best and all that stuff, but he wouldn’t give it back to me. I was a little bit disheartened”
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James Wade appeared to be left riled up after sharing an awkward handshake with Mickey Mansell as he beat him at the Players Championship in Minehead. Credit: ITV Sport
Cam Crabtree capitalised on 17 missed darts at doubles from Mike De Decker, including six match darts, to snatch a 6-5 victory in a decider.
Former semi-finalist Ryan Joyce punished an average of just 86.5 from a struggling Chisnall to win 6-4.
Sebastian Bialecki punished an average of just 85.8 in another performance to forget from Cross as he coasted to a 6-2 win with a high checkout of 154.
Grand Slam semi-finalist Danny Noppert coasted to 6-2 victory over Ricky Evans with a 103.8 average and a high checkout of 164.
Adam Lipscombe coasted to a 6-1 annihilation of an out-of-sorts Cameron Menzies on his debut.
There were also wins for Ross Smith, Andrew Gilding, Scott Williams and Bradley Brooks.
Players Championship Finals – afternoon session results
Main Stage
Sebastian Bialecki 6-2 Rob Cross
Ryan Joyce 6-4 Dave Chisnall
Cam Crabtree 6-5 Mike De Decker
Danny Noppert 6-2 Ricky Evans
James Wade 6-3 Mickey Mansell
James Hurrell 6-3 Jonny Clayton
Ross Smith 6-1 Ryan Meikle
Stage Two
Bradley Brooks 6-1 Martin Lukeman
Andrew Gilding 6-5 Dom Taylor
Scott Williams 6-2 Ian White
Nick Kenny 6-4 Niels Zonneveld
Callan Rydz 6-4 Kevin Doets
Adam Lipscombe 6-1 Cameron Menzies
Daryl Gurney 6-3 Brendan Dolan
Luke Woodhouse 6-2 Alan Soutar
Ricardo Pietreczko 6-3 William O’Connor
Who will win the 2026 World Darts Championship? Watch every match exclusively live from December 11-January 3 on Sky Sports’ dedicated darts channel. Stream darts and more top sport with NOW.
