The 2024 World Cup of Darts will get underway next Thursday in Frankfurt. England starts the tournament as the number one seed and as such, the pre tournament favourites.
Representing England this time around are the duo of Luke Humphries and Michael Smith. For Humphries, it will be his debut at the World Cup of Darts; for Smith, it is already his fifth participation. "The way they play, the pace of it, I think both are really looking forward to playing with the other," previews PDC spotter and former Lakeside Master of Ceremonies Richard Ashdown on the Sky Sports Love the Darts podcast.
"For Luke Humphries, despite being world champion and world number one, there's still a lot of things that are new to him," Ashdown notes, with Cool Hand Luke also having recently made his Premier League Darts debut. On that occasion, Humphries excelled, finishing 2nd in the league table and then going on to lose out in the final to Luke Littler. "None of us now how he's going to take to this format. Personally, I think he's going to love it, but we shall see."
So, does Ashdown feel the combination of Humphries and Smith is good duo? "I do," he answers firmly. "I think also, we need to remember how much Luke Humphries wanted to be in this event last year. That was all the talk going into Euro Tour events wasn't it, for the rankings."
Michael Smith, however, has not been in top form in recent months. "For Michael, he is at that point of the year, where he's most relaxed and gearing up for what is to come. So because of the mindset for those two, for the first time in quite a while I fancy England," Ashdown concludes his analysis. We don't have long to find out if Humphries and Smith will click!
Place comments
0 Comments
You are currently seeing only the comments you are notified about, if you want to see all comments from this post, click the button below.
Show all comments