And it all ended with a rush of blood, a flick of the wrist, and a sharp-tipped arrow shot into a double-eight bed. A dream fulfilled and a dream dashed, a destiny fulfilled and a destiny deterred. World No. 1 Luke Humphries is the new champion of the world, and he has done so not only by defeating the genius of Luke Littler, but by pushing back the tide of fate: standing in the seemingly irresistible path of a great sporting tale. and it delivers with its own unique brilliance.
It was one of the great Ally Pally finals, one of the biggest and most dramatic fights this famous stage has ever seen, under the greatest pressure ever known, with what is almost certain to be the biggest global audience the sport has ever enjoyed.
Relating to: Luke Humphries beats Luke Littler to victory: PDC world darts final 2024 – live reaction
The overwhelming weight of emotion and narrative and the noise of the assembled audience were focused in one direction: the 16-year-old from Warrington attempting to achieve a feat unprecedented in darts, and perhaps history. of British sport.
Humphries, on the contrary, lived on nothing but his intelligence, his own feeble metronomic movements, and his own unshakable faith. At one point his hand was shaking a little, his eyebrows were drenched with sweat, his cheeks were red and swollen. In the teeth of the storm, he produced the biggest dart of his career, capping five consecutive sets with a 7-4 victory that would change his life forever.
Perhaps it was no surprise that at the moment of victory he collapsed to the ground, his legs giving way from under him, his tear ducts opening, his father Mark holding his head in disbelief.
It is a triumph of skill and perseverance, a triumph of hard work and endurance, but above all a triumph of belief: in an era full of the best of all time, in an era where the overall standard of the game is so high. No matter what, he would eventually get the reward his raw talent deserved.
Unlike many of the stars of this sport who display an impenetrable mask of bravado and recklessness, Humphries exposes his human frailties for all to see. He struggled badly with panic attacks and depression early in his career, often failing to replicate his on-field form at the biggest events and secretly wondering whether organized theater was really the sport for him.
The answer came here over 11 memorable sets: five 100-plus finishes, including an average of 104, 23 180s, a maximum of 170. Whenever Littler had his foot on his throat, he would break loose with a big 140 or 180, stealing his legs and sets with nasty finishes, punishing Littler in the same way the young virtuoso had been terrorizing his hapless opponents all month long.
And despite the defeat, this was Littler’s tournament in many ways. Fully formed to the highest level of this sport, chiseled, battle-hardened and mentally impregnable, surges of adrenaline and noise capable of riding the waves and handling Big moments.
From the moment he won his first round match against Christian Kist, there was an overwhelming energy and confidence about him; a power that no one really knew how to arrest because no one had even remotely encountered it before.
Relating to: Luke Humphries emerges as a human hero amid the fuss and bravado of darts | Jonathan Liew
Perhaps this explains why he has been so unimpressed with his rise in the game, so unimpressed with his prodigious talent, and why he seems so impervious to pressure. What else does he know? To what frame of reference can he compare this? The pandemic hit when he was 13, at which point his parents ordered him to go to the practice board to turn a promising talent into an iron career.
Throwing darts in every conceivable configuration and situation over hours, days, weeks and months, learning your way around the board, darts, darts and more darts to the exclusion of anything resembling a normal life. What do they know about darts that only darters know? Apparently quite a lot.
And if there was a turning point in this match of seemingly endless centers, it came in the seventh set when Littler took a 5-2 lead at double two. Littler’s flawless mathematics seemed to abandon him for a moment. He stopped, checked the score, disrupted the flow, missed. Humphries won the set by scoring 208 points in four darts and, looking back, this was the moment when the energy of the match began to change decisively.
Humphries averaged 113, 114 and 109 in the seventh and ninth sets: an almost unthinkable act of defiance in the face of disaster. Even then Littler had his chances: a missed bull run at 124 left him at 170 at the start of the set to level the match at 5-5.
But after all, it was the boy standing in the wings, watching the ticker tape and the glint of the cup, looking a little dazed and a little tired for the first time. As it turned out, this wasn’t his time. But at some point in the uncharted future, it will be.