2024 started with an almighty bang. You may initially think it was the sound of The Nuke exploding onto the PDC scene. No, it was the remarkable culmination of an 18 month period of dominance, the like of which only Phil Taylor and MVG had previously displayed. Luke Humphries kick started PDC darts from a malaise or even a complacent slumber after The Power had stepped down. The remarkable 2024 World Championship was unlike any wade had seen for thelongest time. Thomas Bartley gave DartsWorld 585 his overview:
PDC World Championships are strange beasts. They inhabit several narratives, the ones you soon forget and the ones that will always remain. Sometimes they look different on the close inspection of recency than in the long view. Some merit the always bandied about calls of indelibility, whilst others really don’t.
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2024’s edition was no different. The trophy bears the name Humphries, but this was the Luke Littler World Championship, make no mistake, as the newspaper front pages and ceaseless media coverage will account for. It was also filled with many more remarkable mini-narratives: the sheer and bloody-minded persistence of Luke Humphries, MvG’s embarrassing collapse to Scott Williams and the sensational debut of Man Lok Leung.
We saw some underachieve and others overwhelm. And perhaps more than anything else, it infected the national consciousness in a way that no other World Championship, BDO, PDC or otherwise, ever has.
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The early stages were and felt tentative and cautious, expectant of what was to come rather than explosive in their own right. Michael Smith avoided what would have been a sore opening round defeat by putting in one of his most accomplished performances of the calendar year against Kevin Doets.
Gary Anderson got the better of old foe Simon Whitlock, whilst Humphries faced little response from a subdued Lee Evans. A seed would fall, but it would take until the first Tuesday, when James Wade was felled by Canadian Matt Campbell. Peter Wright would be defeated in far starker fashion the following evening, before Dirk van Duijvenbode and Nathan Aspinall were also denied a post-Christmas return. All others survived unscathed.
Rob Cross delivered on what had been a steady end to the year with his first semi-final since his victory on debut, a third-round win over Jeffrey de Graaf one of many impressive victories. Ross Smith was one of the more unfortunate participants of this year’s event, losing to Chris Dobey despite averaging north of 100.
A shock defeat for Gerwyn Price really gave the sense of a draw opening up, particularly when followed by Michael Smith’s departure in round 4. Given the way he has returned to such fine form in the last year, it may well be Gary Anderson who most rues not taking advantage of the opportunity, though in typical Anderson fashion no such rueing is likely to occur.
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What the open draw did however increasingly offer was the possibility, which became quickly less faint, of a Luke Littler rampage to the final. After dispatching van Barneveld in round 4 and then Brendan Dolan in the quarter-finals, all that was between him and a face-off for the Sid Waddell Trophy was the winner of a much-predicted semi-final between MvG and Humphries. Not quite. Abrogating the destiny of the script, Scott ‘Shaggy’ Williams slayed the Dutchman in ruthless fashion. In any other year the new tour card holder’s run to the semi-final, and destruction of one of the game’s giants, would have been the story of the championship.
It was a sloppy and awry performance from MvG to end what had been a hot and cold 2023 and one which leaves him looking less and less likely to end his career on a sizeable number of World crowns. Bristow and RvB still look reachable on 5, but even that will require some effort.
The semi-finals proved brisk and breathless affairs, both Luke Littler and Luke Humphries overcoming their opponents with veritable ease.
The final was a more heterogeneous affair, flipping between the control of the two Lukes. ‘Cool Hand’ had the early advantage with a 2-1 lead but looked like a comfortable outside shot when he went 4-2. But following a more similar pattern of previous finals, particularly Peter Wright’s finishing flourish against Michael Smith in 2022, Humphries bit back, winning five sets on the trot.
For all of the anomalies of the championship, it ended with a champion most had predicted. Similarly to Michael Smith’s win a year earlier, there was a sense of building linearity to it given how the pair had both dominated the closing months of the successive seasons.
But far from predictable, it is a sign of a championship very different to the one it was in its first decade and a half of existence. With four new winners in the last five years, it is far more the domain of a larger posse of players than merely one leading light.
It bodes well for Littler, if he indeed hopes to join Humphries, Smith and co with his name on the trophy. Or perhaps it might be in the form of Luke Jr that the game swings back to the age of the dictator.
—-ENDS—
Images: PDC / Taylor Lanning
Words: Thomas Bartley
Originally published in Darts World 585 with additional editing for context.
Magazine Pages/Graphics: Darts World Ltd
