“It was kind of hard with the crowd and football chants. Let’s leave football at home, we’re at the darts.” 🧊 Luke Humphries on crowd noise after astonishing Grand Prix comeback against Stephen Bunting. #darts
"Let's leave the football chants at home" - Luke Humphries urges fans to stop with the anti-Leeds United songs during his matches
PDCTuesday, 08 October 2024 at 16:58
Luke Humphries had to pull out all the stops on Monday night to avoid falling at the first hurdle in his attempt at taking a second successive World Grand Prix title. After a brilliant comeback though, the defending champion eventually dealt with Stephen Bunting (2-1).
The world number one was in big trouble early on when Bunting dominated the first set by winning it 3-0 after a fine 115 finish, among other things. 'The Bullet' then also led 2-0 in the second set. However, Bunting missed a matchdart on double 16, leading Humphries' comeback. 'Cool Hand Luke' evened the score, showing in the third set why he is currently the best player in the world.
After the match, Humphries was asked about his opinion of the Leicester crowd, which chanted football songs for much of the match, notably targeting Humphries with anti-Leeds United songs. “Let’s leave football at home, we’re at the darts now,” Humphries told SportsBoom.com, urging fans to stop the chants. “I support Leeds [United], everyone knows that, but let's leave the football chants at home. We are darts players, we're not footballers.”
Among other things, the fans in attendance sang ''Leeds are Falling Apart Again'' a song regularly used to mock Humphries' favourite club by rival fans. “If I'm in a football field and Leeds are playing against whoever and they're chanting it to me whilst I’m there, then I'll accept it, love it, and embrace it, but it's just constant. I love the banter, and I love the ‘Leeds are falling apart’ chant, but this isn’t a football arena,” he concluded. “I know it’s all a bit of fun, but Leeds weren’t falling apart tonight unfortunately for them [the fans]. It didn't affect me to win that game.”
After his hard-fought victory over Bunting, the world number one may return to action Wednesday night at the World Grand Prix. He will then face Ricardo Pietreczko in the second round. The German won 2-1 against Raymond van Barneveld in his tournament debut.
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