WHIT YOU LUKIN AT?
Glasgow is primed for Littler and Humphries
GLASGOW has been placed on red alert for a double Luke missile attack.
PDC chief Matt Porter has outlined the mass explosion which has blasted darts to its highest-ever sporting plane.
Luke Littler and Luke Humphies are at The Hydro tonight for week three of the Premier League having sparked another surge for the game.
At just 16, Littler captured the imagination of both the sporting and general public with his spellbinding run to the final of the World Championship.
Humphries, 29. sank him in the showpiece to cap another amazing rise in his own career.
The pair’s steep ascent to the sport’s summit has sparked a frenzy of fresh attention.
Their meeting in the Ally Pally final drew the highest-ever TV audience figure for a non-football event, hammering golf’s Ryder Cup, cricket’s Ashes and the F1 with 4.8million viewers.
When Littler and Humphries met a fortnight ago in Cardiff, they smashed more TV records for a Premier League darts night.
over 10,000 fans were in Berlin last week and it will be the same again in Glasgow as the duo join the likes of world champions Michael van Gerwen, Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price and Scot Peter Wright.
Porter admits the recent interest surrounding Littler, now turned 17, and Humphries has been stratospheric.
He said: “The story generated at the World Championship was one of the greatest we’ve ever had and there was attention from all parts of the world, all areas of the media and the public.
“Just think about it, the single most-watched sporting event outside of football.
“This didn’t pull in more viewers than the Masters or the Ryder Cup or anything else, it dwarfed the figures. There were lots, lots more people watching.
“of course, we’d huge interest from outside of our normal audiences when Fallon [Sherrock] was first making waves at the World Championship but this was another big step again.
“We could tell it was going to be a very successful tournament from an early stage in the respect of engagement because we get information day on day, yet it just grew and grew.
“Luke Littler turned up at the tournament as one of the kids from the Development Tour and played beautifully. As well as that, he coped with everything that was going around him with a great maturity and people latched on to him instantly.
“After what happened at the worlds, there wasn’t really a conversation to be had about the Premier League. It was impossible for him not to be in it and he wanted to do it.
“In some respects, Luke Littler’s story is about more than darts but Luke Humphries’ story is also phenomenal. Winning the World Championship was a culmination of a brilliant spell where he had probably the most successful six-month run that we’ve seen.
“You think back to this time last year when Luke didn’t make the Premier League field and I spoke with him about it. We talked and I said to him to go out and produce on the biggest stage of all.
“He did exactly that. And more.
“The second half of last year, he was terrific and just kept winning major events.”
Porter believes the rise of the pair is a changing of the guard as he added: “You could say that van Gerwen, Smith, Price and Wright had become the main four in our sport. The four who were dominating the majority of the events. “However, times change in any sport. It’s always the same and this is perhaps a new time and new period for darts. “Both Lukes have put themselves right into the mix now and – from the evidence we are seeing and the feedback we’re getting – this emergence of the two of them is something that the general public and the fans are really enjoying.”