Key events
“Boy howdy is this exciting or what?” writes J. R. in Illinois. “I just hope the Lukes can carry over their form from yesterday. And this is the last time we’ll see Russ Bray on the big stage. Let’s hope he can go out on a high. I’m a little worried about him keeping up with the pace of the game. He’s been struggling a bit lately.”
He has, and I’m sure that’s one of the reasons he’s decided to hang up his lungs. He also has very important work to do on the Asian Tour. Man Lok Leung’s win over Gian van Veen was one of my favourite matches of this year’s competition.
Last night’s action
All together now: wuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunayyyytee
One last dance for Russ Bray tonight as he referees his final ever World Championship final 🎤
The Voice has entertained darts fans for nearly 30 Years! pic.twitter.com/QVtJH6lCEH
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) January 3, 2024
Apparently Russ Bray was once an extra EastEnders, supping a pint in the Queen Vic behind a displeased Phil Mitchell. If anyone can find a video of this magical event, please send it in.
“I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a darts match since Taylor-Priestley in ’96,” writes Gregory Phillips. “Maybe Barney and Phil in ’07. If this delivers like those matches did, we are in for a treat.”
The last man to win the worlds on debut was Rob Cross in 2018. But the most famous, at least until 10pm tonight, is probably Keith Deller in 1983. You can read all about his fairytale here.
The combined age of the two players is 44, which makes it easily the youngest final in PDC history. Not sure what the moral of this story is, except that Luke Littler is a multigenerational talent, but it adds another element to tonight’s game.
Well?
Preamble
So, whose destiny is it anyway? Luke Littler and Luke Humphries are both meant to become world champion at Alexandra Palace tonight. Alas, societal convention dictates that – at least until this time next year – only one of them can join the pantheon.
Either result will be good for the soul. A win for Littler, [insert age], would conclude the greatest story in darts history, a mindblowing fairytale that seemed impossible until a few days ago. Victory for Humphries, who almost quit the sport six years ago because of an anxiety disorder, would complete a classic and inspirational character arc.
It’s pretty hard to split them. Humphries wins decisively on surname Scrabble points, but everything else is close. Humphries has been the best player in the world for the past few months; Littler has been the best for the last couple of weeks. During the World Championship that have both hit fifty 180s. Littler’s average is slightly higher, 101.82 to Humphries’ 99.33, and he has had a smoother route to the final. But Humphries, who dodged several arrows against Ricardo Pietreczko and Joe Cullen, has looked almost unbeatable in the last two rounds. Almost.
Last night, in the afterglow of Littler’s astonishing dismissal of Rob Cross, Humphries whitewashed Scott Williams with the highest average of the tournament so far: 108.74. In doing so he become the world No1 for the first time in his career.
Everything points to it being a classic. Everything except the past. The variables that make darts uniquely fascinating – rhythm, momentum, doubles – can also lead to an unwelcome anti-climax. The last truly great PDC final was probably Phil Taylor v Gary Anderson nine years ago. Since then there have been at least two finals that looked certain to be epics: Anderson v Michael van Gerwen in 2017 and Van Gerwen v Michael Smith a year ago. Both started brilliantly but were ultimately one-sided.
We need games like that for the true classics to count. What we can say is that if both play as they did last night, it’ll be a rare old barnburner.
The first dart in this best-of-13-sets match should be thrown just after 8.15pm. The force is strong in these two. May the best Luke win.
Come on, we can’t exactly say ‘may the best man win’. He’s 16!
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