Lethal Luke Humphries crushes Clayton to race into European Championship quarterfinals

Luke Humphries is into the quarter-finals at the 2024 European Championship in Dortmund, Germany. The current world champion and number one left Jonny Clayton helpless with a dominant 10-3 victory.

Top favourite Humphries had already given out a calling card by defeating Nathan Aspinall with an impressive average of 106 in the opening round and now laid down another marker, averaging over 102 in this one. Humphries has been in absolute top form over the past year and will be looking for his next major victory, having won the World Darts Championship, World Cup of Darts and World Matchplay earlier this year.

In a nip and tuck opening session, Humphries headed off the stage only 3-2 up on former Premier League Darts champion Clayton, despite averaging around 20 points more than his Welsh opponent.

In the second session that gulf in standard began to tell though as Humphries raced through it, taking all five legs and extending his advantage to 8-2. Although did get one leg back, a miraculous comeback was not on the cards as Humphries took the 10-3 win.

In the quarter-finals, Jermaine Wattimena now awaits Humphries after the Dutchman edged James Wade in a deciding leg thriller earlier in the evening.

The tournament will be broadcast fully live on ITV. The daily evening sessions are at 7 p.m., while the afternoon sessions start at 11:45am. on Saturday and Sunday.

The first round will be completed on Thursday, Oct. 24, and Friday, Oct. 25. The 16 winners of the first round will compete for a spot among the final eight on Saturday, Oct. 26. The quarterfinals will be on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 27, followed by the semifinals and finals in the evening.