Luke Humphries got his BetMGM Premier League 2025 campaign off to a perfect start with a dominant 6-1 victory over Chris Dobey in the Night One final in Belfast.
Humphries made a rapid start in the final and in the blink of an eye was 3-0 up, 128 and 100 checkouts helping him dominate.
Dobey struggled on the doubles and that enabled world No 1 Humphries to extend his advantage with another 100 finish, ‘Hollywood’ finally managing to get on the board with a clutch 126 in the sixth leg.
However, that only delayed the inevitable as Humphries came back on his throw to wrap things up on tops, a remarkable 86 per cent on the doubles cementing the authoritative win.
Although very early days, he now sits top of the Premier League table on five points.
“I think this is the hardest Premier League for a long time. Nights like this might not happen as much as you want,” Humphries told Sky Sports.
Humphries is expecting a tough campaign in the Premier League this year
“The last two years I haven’t got off to a good start, so it’s nice to get off to a good start.
“I did great last year and I’m hoping to do the same this year.”
Humphries took out 140 in brilliant fashion as he secured the early break against Van Gerwen
Humphries stayed strong against Michael van Gerwen to win a 6-5 last-leg shoot-out to get through to the final.
Van Gerwen fought back brilliantly with some big scoring to bring the game to 4-3 after being 3-1 down, but then dropped off and allowed Humphries to reinstate his dominance, a silky 120 checkout putting the world No 1 one leg away from the final.
With the match then in a decider, the Dutchman missed match darts on the bullseye and Humphries came to the oche to clinch 45 on D16.
Chris Dobey took out 170 and reeled in ‘The Big Fish’ against Rob Cross in Belfast!
Dobey booked his spot in the final with a 6-4 win over Rob Cross, massive ‘Big Fish’ and ‘Shanghai’ checkouts helping him on the way.
In a topsy-turvy encounter, Dobey took three legs on the spin before world No 4 Cross hit back with three of his own, two breaks of throw helping ‘Hollywood’ pick up some big points on opening night.
MVG and Littler put on Premier League classic
Van Gerwen’s brilliant 114 finish inspired him to an enthralling 6-5 win over Littler
Van Gerwen started his night by getting some revenge on Luke Littler for his World Darts Championship final defeat, winning in a thrilling final-leg decider as Littler made history with the second-highest Premier League losing average ever – a mind-blowing 113.91.
In what was an all-time Premier League classic, Littler was motoring on with an average of over 121 in the early stages and took out a mega 161 for a break of throw, his doubling throughout impressive at 45 per cent.
Littler brilliantly took out 161 to move level at 2-2 against Van Gerwen
However, Van Gerwen hit back with a break of his own and a 114 checkout to help him move to 5-4 up, before missed match darts allowed ‘The Nuke’ to pin 87 on the bullseye.
With the encounter tense at 5-5 and the 180s still flowing, a stray dart into T7 took away Littler’s chance to finish off 167 and the ‘Green Machine’ checked out 25 on D8 for a huge victory.
Stephen Bunting hit a classy 137 checkout against Cross during their quarter-final clash
In the other quarter-finals, Gerwyn Price lost 6-4 to Dobey in the opening match, before Cross held off a Stephen Bunting fightback to win 6-4 and Humphries comfortably saw off Nathan Aspinall 6-2.
Sky Sports will once again be the home of the Premier League in 2025, with every night exclusively live along with the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and more! Stream darts and more top sport with NOW
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(471x244:473x246)/CNN-New-Years-Eve-with-Anderson-Cooper-123124-9952e5f00fc1425f87113ba2bfb97b29.jpg "Anderson Cooper Says He Once ‘Hated’ New Year’s Eve While Co-Hosting CNN Broadcast")
