Heroic Humphries clambers out of Clayton conundrum to keep World Grand Prix defence alive

Luke Humphries has kept his World Grand Prix title defence alive and will now be favourite to seal the title again from here especially after the previous results this evening in Leicester. This saw Ryan Joyce set up a tie with Mike de Decker for a spot in the final.

Humphries saw off Jonny Clayton in a 3-1 win over 'The Ferret' who put in a valiant effort in one of his best runs in some time. But still it was to no avail as 'Cool Hand Luke' upped his level in the end and sealed the win.

Humphries initially claimed the opening set with a superb opening salvo 3-1 with the aid of two maximums. It was a bright start for the World Number One.

But Clayton asked the question in the second and forced Humphries to produce again. 'The Ferret' made it 1-1 in sets holding throw after Humphries missed 114 to take it to the decider and the Welshman pinned double 10 to level.

But on his return from the break, Humphries was in no mood to have Clayton lead. He went 2-0 down. But a catalyst came in the form of a wonderful 146 checkout to break the Welshman's throw and he was then taken to a decider.

Humphries dug deep to break throw in the decider and hit double 10 to claim the set and make it 2-1. The title defence was still on from there as despite Clayton taking it to a decider, he left 69 from 209. He had more match darts though hitting double four after missing five match darts prior.

It looked in doubt but a heroic Humphries underlined he is the man to beat in world darts amid the recent noise about his lack of attention by James Wade and Gary Anderson.