Luke Humphries beats Luke Littler to become PDC World Darts champion at Ally Pally
Luke Humphries won five unanswered sets as he beat 16-year-old sensation Luke Littler in the final of the World Darts Championship at the Alexandra Palace last night.
Cool Hand Luke, who grew up in West Berkshire, pockets a cool £500,000 for becoming world champion and rises to world number one for the first time.
Since winning the World Grand Prix in October, Humphries has become just the third player in history to win four major televised titles in the space of a year - alongside Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen - having dominated the darting world over the last three months.
After coming from two sets down to edge past German debutant Ricardo Pietreczko in the last 32 and surviving two match darts against Joe Cullen in the round of 16, Cool Hand hit top form, easing past Dave Chisnall in the last eight before whitewashing Scott Williams in the semi-final.
Humphries made a positive start to the final, opening up 1-0 and 2-1 leads, but Littler - roared on by a capacity crowd - threatened to do the unthinkable as he reeled off three unanswered legs before missing double two to take a 5-2 lead.
Cool Hand followed up a spectacular 170 checkout with a 13-dart leg to reduce the arrears, averaged 114.17 in the eighth set to restore parity and backed up consecutive 108 checkouts with an 11-darter to take the lead.
A 12-dart leg moved Humphries within a set of glory and, after Littler missed three darts at double to close the gap, fired in double eight to become the 12th world champion.
"I honestly cannot put into words how great this feels," admitted Humphries, who has won four of the last five major televised events.
"I am really proud of my performance. I had to win this one tonight because Luke (Littler) is going to win plenty, I'm sure.
"He is an incredible talent. Even when I was on the brink of winning there, he was relentless.
"That seventh set was a massive turning point. If I'm 5-2 down it becomes a real uphill task, but to reel off those last five sets was just incredible.
"My hand was shaking like mad going for that double eight, but fortunately it just fell in."
Humphries is set to be announced as one of the eight players in this year's Premier League, one of the sport's most lucrative competitions, at 4pm this afternoon. Littler, who beat former world champions Raymond van Barneveld and Rob Cross en route to the final, is also widely expected to be included.