Grand Slam of Darts: Luke Humphries hits sensational nine-darter as Luke Littler progresses and Beau Greaves’ hopes come to an end | Darts News

Luke Humphries won his match against Michael Smith with an incredible nine-darter on day two of the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton, with Luke Littler booking his spot in the last 16.

The world No 1 bookended his match with two incredible finishes. After getting the contest really going with a sublime 139 in the fourth leg, he kept his cool as ‘Bully Boy’ continued to battle as he returns from injury.

With the match then 4-3 in his favour, ‘Cool Hand’ found perfection, scoring 177, 180 and then T20, T20, D12 to send the Wolverhampton crowd into pandemonium.

It gave Humphries his second televised nine-darter and fourth on a big stage.

“I absolutely have no idea where that came from at the end there to be honest,” Humphries said.

“It was a really, really terrible performance for myself at the start. I guess this happens in darts, I’m not used to it, but up there it felt hard work, it didn’t feel great.

“In practice it was all perfect, I don’t feel bad, no injuries, I went up there and it was just really bad for myself.

“Do you know what, the whole leg felt effortless, though. When I hit the 177 it didn’t feel hard work and then the 180 felt good and then as soon as the first treble goes in, if you go on 141 it’s a lot harder because you have to swap and stuff but the first dart was great and then obviously the second one followed it and then double 12.

“I kind of felt probably more relaxed on the fact that I wasn’t playing well.”

In the same group, Nathan Aspinall kept his Grand Slam hopes alive with a tough 5-2 victory over Alex Spellman who is now out of contention but could still play a big role in his group as his final opponent, Smith, and Humphries can all still mathematically take one of the two places available in Group A.

Greaves suffers tough loss that sets up MVG vs Anderson classic

Despite averaging over 100 for the tournament so far, Beau Greaves cannot qualify for the next stage after a 5-4 loss to Gary Anderson in a deciding-leg classic.

Greaves entered the encounter on the back of an almighty contest with Michael van Gerwen, who now takes on Anderson on Monday in a straight shoot-out for the second Group G spot in the last 16 after Niko Springer won 5-4 against the ‘Green Machine’, keeping his nerve to hold his throw in the ninth leg.

In Greaves’ battle with Anderson, she took a 2-0 lead but Anderson showed his class to fight back, both players averaging highly in a superb showing in which the 180s came at a consistent pace.

With the match then in the deciding leg, the ‘Flying Scotsman’ punished ‘Beau N Arrow’, taking out a big 103 to put him one step closer to keeping his 100 per cent progression record at the Grand Slam intact.

“She’s brilliant, isn’t she,” Anderson said.

“I’ve pulled out just about every stop that I’ve had in the bag tonight to win that game.

“She is going to cause so much trouble next year on the circuit.

“She is by far [the best female player] until somebody else comes along, but I would say that.

“I know Fallon (Sherrock) is a great player, and Lisa (Ashton), but Beau is a wee bit different.”

Littler ensures his Grand Slam defence continues

Littler continued his quest to defend a TV title for the first time and move to world No 1 by booking his spot in the next round with a 5-3 victory over Connor Scutt.

The match got off to an electric start as Littler broke throw with a 121 before Scutt fired back by reeling in ‘The Big Fish’ 170 finish.

However, Littler then took things up a notch and, after another break of throw with a 102 on tops, he held his throw with some style, wrapping up the match on his favourite D10.

Elsewhere in Group E, Karel Sedlacek reeled off five legs in a row and eventually succeeded with his 11th attempt at a match dart to dump Daryl Gurney out of the Grand Slam.

Meanwhile in Group C, Martin Schindler pulled off a big 5-4 win over Stephen Bunting to send ‘The Bullet’ out as Luke Woodhouse progressed following a strong 5-2 win over Alexis Toylo.

Afternoon session: Wade and Clayton suffer early Grand Slam exits

Gerwyn Price turned the blockbuster match-up of the afternoon against James Wade into a one-sided demolition job, bulldozing Wade in a 5-0 whitewash defeat.

That loss leaves Wade rooted to the bottom of Group D and out of the competition, with the match between Price and Springer now a straight shoot-out for the second spot in the next stage after Ricky Evans made it back-to-back wins with a deciding-leg 5-4 victory over Stefan Bellmont.

Danny Noppert repelled a strong challenge from Cam Crabtree to snatch a 5-4 win, while Lukas Wenig, playing in the Grand Slam of Darts for the first time in his career, held his nerve to hand Jonny Clayton a 5-3 defeat. ‘The Ferret’ now cannot qualify for the knockout stages.

Josh Rock powered past Lisa Ashton, putting in a fine display to win 5-0 as Dutch rivals Gian van Veen and Wessel Nijman met in a tense match, with the former coming through to win 5-3.

Jurjen van der Velde managed to pip Martin Lukeman 5-4 and the final dart of the Sunday afternoon session was a bullseye from Chris Dobey as he defeated Damon Heta 5-1.

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