Luke Humphries gave a defiant message to his family before playing through the pain barrier to win the US Darts Masters. The world No.1’s tournament got off to a painful start before he had even thrown a dart at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
During his walk-on ahead of his first-round match against Stowe Buntz, Humphries was left wincing in pain after his thumb on his throwing hand was pulled back by an over-enthusiastic fan. Cool Hand came through that match before beating another American in Danny Lauby. He then demolished Gerwyn Price 7-2 in the semi-finals before seeing off Nathan Aspinall 8-6 in the final, despite still being in severe discomfort. Before the final, he made it clear to his loved ones that he intended to leave everything out on the oche, telling Online Darts: “When I was in the final, I said to my family, ‘I’m going to give it everything, if I injure my hand in the final, it doesn’t matter.’ I tried my best, and thankfully, it was good enough.”
Fortunately, Humphries was already planning to take a couple of weeks off before returning to action at the European Tour’s Baltic Sea Open in mid-July. That comes a week ahead of his defence of his World Matchplay crown.
“My thumb is incredibly swollen,” said Humphries, who will skip the next World Series event in Poland, which begins on Friday. “It’s hard to play through; I was struggling with the grip. I couldn’t hold my thumb in the same position.
“I don’t want to make it all about that because I’ve won the title, I don’t want the headlines to be about me and an injury. But the guy, when he pulled my hand back, he really hurt it. I’m going to have to go home and get it X-rayed.
“I don’t think it’s broken because it doesn’t hurt to squeeze it. I’ve got a couple of weeks off now. The next time I play will be in Kiel [at the Baltic Sea Open].”
His injury aside, Humphries was proud to triumph at such an illustrious venue. He added: “This is the most iconic venue that we play in and it’s really special to win this event. It’s one of the top venues in the world and it’s one I’ve always dreamed of winning. When I finally won it tonight, it was an amazing relief.
“Once I knew I was in a winning position, I started getting nervous – I’m really pleased to win and I’m over the moon. It’s another massive event ticked off for me.
“I’ve won World Championships, World Matchplays, Premier Leagues and these big titles and it felt like I’d won another major. That’s how big it is. It’s very special and you could see my relief at the end.
“This was the one on the World Series that I really wanted to win. The crowd have been absolutely amazing this week, and to have my mum and dad here to see me win again means the world to us all.”
