Humphries reflects on incredible first half of the season: "This year my target was to win a title"

Luke Humphries has had a superb start to the 2022 season with 'Cool Hand Luke' sealing four titles including a trio of European Tour wins at the Czech Darts Open, European Darts Grand Prix and German Darts Grand Prix.

Sitting down after winning in Prague, Humphries was taking some down time at a golf course to reflect on his incredible year and how he has smashed his own expectations.

"I think it's gone a lot better than I imagined actually," said Humphries. "This year my target was to win a title, I think I said that quite a lot. I said that at the World Championship that I had these darts that I thought could take me to the next level. Win one title and I'm sat here with three more now so it's going a lot better than I expected."

First ProTour of the season

It all start for Humphries with winning the first ProTour of the season in Barnsley and he believes that was a catalyst.

"I felt that my game was getting there on the floor. I sort of stalled a bit at the back end of last year. I made three finals and then I had a lot of early exits in the back end so I come into the situation this year that I wanted to start quickly and winning quickly and winning that first event has set me up for the rest of the year."

Van Gerwen thumping

But his best win of the season came at the German Darts Grand Prix where before toppling Martin Lukeman, he smashed Michael van Gerwen in one of the most dominant displays seen on the European Tour stage in some time.

"I think it was the biggest and most amazing win of my career. I think it even topped the win in the semi-finals of the UK Open as I went on to win it in Munich. I had that great performance against Michael in the semi-finals of the UK Open but I didn't go on to win the tournament so it didn't mean as much. Where as this time, this huge performance against Michael I went onto win the title so it made it even more special."

"He brings the best out of me Michael, I feel I can beat him. A lot of players seem to struggle against him, they think of the name more than just going up there and playing like they can."

"I probably doubt myself more against the lower ranked players than I do the top players. I relax more."