"I don’t think anyone’s going to dominate like an MVG or a Phil Taylor" - Adrian Lewis doesn't think Luke Humphries will keep having it all his own way

Luke Humphries has been the all conquering force in the darting world over the last twelve months. Five major singles titles has fired Humphries to a mammoth near £600,000 lead over his nearest challenger in the PDC Order of Merit.

How long can 'Cool Hand Luke' continue hoovering up the PDC's biggest titles though? Supposedly, the strength in depth of the darting elite has never been stronger. The likes of Michael Smith, Michael van Gerwen, Luke Littler, Peter Wright, Nathan Aspinall, Rob Cross and the rest should in theory make it much more difficult to dominate. Humphries through, has now won five of the last seven ranking majors and narrowly lost in the final of the 2024 UK Open to Dimitri Van den Bergh.

"Luke Humphries has dominated really the last kind of seven, eight, nine months - do you see that continuing? Do you see someone else stepping in? Or do you just see, just say there’s 10 big events a year, do they get shared out for the next 10 years?" Wayne Mardle, former pro-turned Sky Sports pundit and commentator asked two time world champion Adrian Lewis on the most recent episode of William Hill's Club 501 Podcast.

For his part, Lewis, who was mentored by the most dominant player in darts history Phil Taylor, believes the days of such suffocation of one man in the biggest events for years on end are over. "I think he’s like having a big steak and everybody’s having a little piece of it," Lewis suggest via an analogy. "I do think everyone will have like a little piece, I don’t think anyone’s going to dominate clearly, like an MVG [Michael van Gerwen] or a Phil [Taylor], I can’t see that."

As Mardle then reveals, even the world number one and world champion himself doesn't truly believe his dominance will last forever. "I was chatting to Luke Humphries just last week and I said 'this is some run [you’ve been on]'. And he was like 'I can’t dominate all the time'. I said 'you kind of are though'," Mardle recalls. "He went 'I think I’ll keep winning but at this rate, probably not' and I’m in agreement with him, and obviously you. Because darts is not like it was when Phil was dominating."

"Yeah, well everybody always says that the standard has obviously gone from there to there (higher up). I think the fact that the standards obviously gone there, I think what’s happened is there is more players that can average over and under consistently," adds Lewis in conclusion.