Luke Humphries produced one of the best fightbacks in World Grand Prix history as 'Cool Hand Luke' saw off Gerwyn Price on Sunday night to win 6-4. Humphries defied a pretty incredible opening salvo from 'The Iceman', who was averaging 132 in the opening stages, to seal the win, and even Humphries couldn't believe it, speaking afterwards. A full-circle moment for a player who registered his first major success in the same arena only a few years prior.
"Do you know what? It's so surreal I sit here as a winner because I was almost adamant I was going to be a loser. Honestly, I wasn't thinking I'd lost a game when I was 3-0 down, but you're almost thinking the chance of you winning this is probably like 5-10% if you're lucky," said Humphries to the media, including DartsNews.com. "And obviously that 108 or 105 – looking back on the game, you think that is one of the biggest shots of my career now. Now I've won it. But little did I know that the 10-9 set was even bigger. So proud of myself, the way I felt, and the way I battled for it. The crowd did help me out in the end. I kind of walked out, and I felt that little bit of animosity. I didn't think they were too great to me. And in the end they wanted me to win, but that's the funny thing about the crowd support: they just wanted to see a good game. As they knew I wasn't playing very well, they wanted to boost me up a little bit, and they did boost me up in the end."
When sat at 3-0 down, Humphries admitted many would've folded and that only perhaps Luke Littler and Nathan Aspinall would've had a similar sort of rise back to seal the win. "Yeah, there are not many players in the world of darts that can do that when you're 3-0 down. I think he's averaging 105 or whatever. I think probably me, Littler and Aspinall are the only three that could have come back from that. To be fair, I think everyone else would have just given in. As much as it might look like I'm a body language, I never give in; I never give up. All I thought to myself was, 'Just when it's there, I can give the crowd something to go on,' and I finally did that, and it gave me a little boost. I've come out from the break and won another one, and it's like now it's game on. So that first set really did give me the boost, and then obviously I've won four in the trot then, and all of a sudden I'm like, 'Well, the game's in my hand now because it's my throw.' It flipped and flopped in many ways, but I'm just so proud of myself for the way I just didn't give in. A lot of people at home, I guarantee you, on social media would have gone, 'He's given in; he's given up here.' I'm sat in there as a champion, so I never give in."
16 months Humphries has had to wait since he won the Premier League, and the confidence he now takes from it he admits is impressive. "This is a tournament that obviously suits me. My doubling in wasn't very good tonight, but it's been, I would say, above average from the rest of the players getting in. So it's given me a bit of confidence on the doubles because that's maybe been my Achilles heel. To be fair, another thing I remember, I've never ever had a game so much in my life where everything was on the wire so much. It actually frustrated me a lot because I was like wiring everything. I just remember thinking to myself, 'What is the luck here?' I'm just wiring everything, and he's nailing it first out. It was really, really tough. For me, I won't think too much into that because I thought I was just all around it all night, but I've managed to find it at the right time. All it takes is just a good leg to really boost you into gear, and it did for me."
But the right prediction on him winning in fact came from a completely outside source, Mark Webster, who was name-dropped during the press conference as the only player who believed in him. "The Premier League was amazing. But this one is an important one because I feel like I've bounced back from the fact that a lot of people – I don't think a lot of people actually thought I was going to win this. I think the only person who thought I was going to win was Mark Webster. He knows his stuff, obviously. He was the only person that backed me. I don't think a lot of people backed me to make the finals. Obviously he knows his stuff and didn't discredit me and think that I didn't have a chance. On the stats, this is one of my favourite tournaments. I felt like maybe a lot of the fans probably didn't think I stood a chance or I could win, but I just showed again that I was bouncing back."
Price lost again in a major final and asked about the laugh on stage between the pair at 3-1. Humphries said he would likely be regretting it now but that Price is too good not to accrue more major success. "Obviously what he said was, I can't say on camera; it wasn't anything bad. It was more scary words, but I think he felt he was in control of the game and probably thought he was still going to win the game because he thought I'd probably just nicked a set there and wasn't going to win many more. And then obviously he probably regrets that now. But I think Gezzy is probably one of the best losers on tour now. The way he acts after he loses is like a credit to the sport, and all the youngsters should look up to people like him and me that really do take defeat on the chin really well because he didn't used to be a good loser. I don't think I used to be a good loser, but now I think we've learned really well to be good losers, and he always takes it very well. But what I must say is that he's going to win something big soon because you can't keep playing this way and not. He's been a bit unlucky, maybe the last three times he's played. He played well in the World Series, but I didn't see that one. He's played well tonight, but he's going to win something soon, and maybe a big one."
While for Humphries, he said that he wants to win one more World title to achieve everything he's ever wanted to achieve. "So I've won one now, so it's to win one more, and hopefully it's the World Championships. But if it's not, then I'll take at least another European, Grand Slam or players, but hopefully I can win one of them and win the world's. Like I just said to Polly, I'd love to win one more World Championship. You have to have that grit and determination to do it. I feel like the last few years I've been there, I've just been so inconsistent. Maybe I have been in this tournament, but I need to find that level that really, really pushes people. Because for me, that's just the one thing that's missing now: another World Championship. If I can win two, then I think that's it for me. I'm not giving up; I just mean that's it for me. I've done everything I ever thought I could ever achieve."
No Littler, no problem? No, Luke Littler and Humphries said it was the chance to prove that the sport doesn't have to be about just one player and one narrative. "You don't really want a story to be about one player. You want it to be spread around a little bit. I think Luke's always going to win most of the tournaments because he's just that consistent player. Everyone knows that. But I think it's shown that a lot of people can nick a title here and there. I see it on social media all the time. Everyone just thinks darts is boring. One person's going to win everything, but that's not really the way it happens. Luke's going to go through a moment where he's unbelievable and unbeatable. Then he's going to go through a moment where he goes on low, and then he comes back again. All these types of things. So Darts is an exciting place. I don't think he'll win everything he could do, but he won't. I think there are opportunities for other players if they put the effort in and stuff. Obviously him going out and opening the tournament up massively for everyone."
