Luke ready for a repeat feat

NEWBURY darts star Luke Humphries kicks off his World Darts Championship challenge tomorrow (Friday) night.

The 24-year-old heads to Alexandra Palace, London, for the first round of the competition where he meets South Africa’s Devon Petersen.

Humphries, who is at a career high of 46 in the PDC order of merit, will be hoping to improve on last year’s tournament, when he reached the quarter-finals.

The former Trinity School pupil surprised many last year as he beat Stephen Bunting and former world champion Rob Cross on the way to the last eight.

Humphries was knocked out by losing finalist Michael Smith.

He has enjoyed a strong end to 2019 and comes into the competition in a rich vein of form having won the PDC World Youth Championship last month.

Humphries beat Czech Republic’s Adam Gawlas 6-0 in the final in Minehead.

If the 24-year-old can progress into the second round, he will face world number 18 Jermaine Wattimena on Saturday afternoon.

We’ll have updates from Alexandra Palace on Newbury Today, our social media sites including Twitter and Facebook plus reaction in next week’s Newbury Weekly News.