Luke Humphries has prevailed on Week One of the Premier League with victory over Chris Dobey in the final.
Having won the Winmau World Masters at the weekend, the world number one arrived in Belfast ahead of the tournament opener as the form player.
Humphries back up his success in Milton Keynes by dropping just eight legs in seeing off Nathan Aspinall, Michael van Gerwen and Dobey.
After making light work of Aspinall, emerging victorious by a 6-2 scoreline with a 105.19 average, Humphries came from 4-3 down to edge out Van Gerwen in a final-leg decider.
The final turned out to be one-way traffic, Humphries breezing into a 5-0 lead before Dobey took out 126 to avoid a whitewash defeat.
Nevertheless, it did not stop Humphries from sealing victory in the next leg to secure top spot ahead of the remaining 15 weeks of the league phase.
HUMPHRIES WINS NIGHT ONE! 🏆
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) February 6, 2025
Luke Humphries hammers Chris Dobey 6-1 in the Night One final!
What a start for Cool Hand!
📺 https://t.co/CxOorrFXK9#PLDarts25 pic.twitter.com/ph7iTo4CHA
What else happened on Week One?
On Wednesday, Luke Littler was in the headlines for being 45 minutes late for a media event, something that was criticised by Van Gerwen.
That added to the plot ahead of the pair facing each other on Thursday, Van Gerwen winning by a 6-5 scoreline despite Littler averaging 113.91.
Van Gerwen had been 5-3 ahead before several missed match darts and a 87 checkout forced a decider, only for Van Gerwen to take the last leg.
Dobey had reached the final with 6-4 wins over Gerwyn Price and Rob Cross, who reached the last four with a 6-4 triumph of his own over Stephen Bunting.
Darren Plant
