Humphries and Littler Luke lively

LUKE HUMPHRIES is a player bang in form and has the confidence to boot.

You’ve got to be at the absolute top of your game to beat Luke (above) at the moment and unfortunately that’s not quite where I am.

I played him in the second round at the Belgian Darts Open this past weekend. Luke is a great lad and it is nice to see him silence some of the unfair critics he has had since he won the World Championship.

There’s something about the two Lukes at the moment.

The other one – Littler – continues to make the game look extremely easy. He’s hitting nine-darters, winning tournaments and ruffling a few feathers in the process.

He is extremely good for our sport and everyone will reap the rewards from high viewing figures, wider interest and a new audience.

It was nice to get back to European Tour action last week and good to get a first victory under my belt with a hard-fought 6-5 win over Raymond van Barneveld.

This is a strange time of year for people not in the Premier League, because the darts are very stop-start, but there are Players Championships next week and more Euro Tours, so hopefully I can get up and running.

This week’s Premier League is full of interesting match-ups, not least Littler (inset) against Michael van Gerwen.

As I mentioned last week, Michael has some shoulder issues and is looking uncomfortable, so hopefully he has recovered.

Peter Wright needs to get some points fast but Gerwyn Price stands in his way – and then you have the battle of the last two world champions in Humphries and Michael Smith.

I expect the final match of the quarters to be fascinating, as Nathan Aspinall, who won in Exeter two weeks ago, takes on Rob Cross, who has been playing incredibly well.

James Wade’s column is sponsored by Elitecompetitions.co.uk – use code WADE25 for 25% off tickets