Is Nathan Aspinall Becoming a Real Threat to the Lukes?

In many sports, there are one or two players who ultimately dominate the discourse due to their exceptional ability and rapid rise to stardom. In soccer, the 2010s into the 2020s were the era of Ronaldo versus Messi, where the two traded the Ballon d’Or year in and year out. In tennis, it is fast becoming Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz who are the two names on everyone’s lips.

In darts, the last year or so has been the beginning of the Luke era. Both Humphries and Littler have been the names up in lights, both for their rapid rise to the top of their games. The Nuke was possibly the most exciting of the two, given that he is still a teenager and a down-to-earth lad who spends as much time talking about video gaming and his love of a good kebab as he does about his celebrity.

The two Lukes are now, without doubt, the two hottest prospects in world darts. They have both traded blows with one another and claimed major titles where the other was perhaps the favourite. However, because of this, many quality players are seemingly being overlooked, and one of those could well be Nathan Aspinall.

Nathan is an experienced player at this point. He is 34 now and has been on the PDC circuit for years. However, he has never really featured as one of the stars of the tournaments he appears in, having often been overshadowed by both veterans of the game and newcomers like Littler, who are the shinier new toy for darts fans.

In terms of major titles, he has only claimed a World Matchplay and a UK Open, with the former being the most recent in 2023. However, that overlooks his appearances at just as competitive events on the European circuit. In 2025, he won three European championships, including the 2025 German Darts Championship, where he defeated Dirk van Duijvenbode in the final.

Despite that relative success, the Englishman is still seen as a relative outsider for the PDC World Championship in December. In the darts odds, he’s as long as +3900 for the title. That perhaps isn’t reflective of a player who went further than Luke Littler in a number of competitions this year, proving his worth on the circuit.

It is also possible that it is not the fault of The Asp that he isn’t held in higher regard in the PDC betting. Instead, it’s largely because of the ability of the rest of the players on the circuit. He isn’t only behind Luke Humphries and Littler. He’s also behind players like Gerwyn Price, Michael van Gerwen, and Stephen Bunting. Darts is experiencing something of a renaissance in the 2020s.

Players are no longer seen as the beer-swilling men of the past. They are professionals with fitness regimes and sports psychologists behind them, looking to keep them at the top of their games. In fact, it’s something that Aspinall will be intimately aware of, given that he himself has begun looking at ways to improve his game away from the oche.

He recently spoke about how he believes his new fitness regime is behind his success in the Euro Tour, despite experiencing disappointment in the European Championships. He explained that he has taken up running and spending time in the gym to hone a steely mentality that will help him keep his cool when he steps up to the oche.

The curtain closer of 2025 in darts, the World Championships, will be the stage for The Asp to prove his development. A strong performance will mean that he ends the year on a high, and a win would certainly upset the apple cart in the sport.

Three Euro Tour wins in one year is nothing to be sniffed at, and Nathan Aspinall should be lauded for his successes. If he continues his return to form, it is only a matter of time before he topples one of the Lukes in the top two and wins one of the big competitions.