Humphries goes close to another title as he reaches semis in Germany

Newbury’s Luke Humphries went close to winning back-to-back titles at the weekend, reaching the semi-finals of the Interwetten German Darts Championship in Hildesheim.

The 28-year-old won his first ever major televised title last week following a dominant display at the World Grand Prix in Leicester and looked on course to follow that with his sixth European Tour title, whitewashing James Wade and easing past Rob Cross to book his spot in the last four.

However the new world-number-four was beaten 7-5 in the semi-final by Peter Wright, ending his hopes of a second European Tour title of 2023, with home favourite Ricardo Pietreczko going on to win 8-4 in the final.

Cool Hand Luke, who became a father for the first time in October last year, has set his sights on becoming world-number-one and will be amongst the favourites when darts’ showpiece event, the World Championships, get underway at the Alexandra Palace in December.

“It was another great European Tour for me,” he said.

“I had four 100+ averages and just ran into a great Peter Wright performance in the semi-final.

“That’s the end of the European Tour but I’m already looking forward to next year when I’m hoping for much more success.”