Luke Humphries narrowly survives disaster with Houdini-esque escape act against Ricardo Pietreczko
PDCThursday, 28 December 2023 at 23:14
Luke Humphries' World Darts Championship hung by a very thin thread Thursday night, but with a hard-fought 4-3 victory over Ricardo Pietreczko, he made it into the last 16, where a duel with Joe Cullen awaits.
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The evening began with a dip for Humphries. While throwing in, the tip of one of his darts broke off. The arrow could not be repaired, so "Cool Hand Luke" had to start with a new set of arrows.
This bad luck seemed to have caused a mental blow to Humphries, who was a shadow of the player who reigned supreme in the autumn with three major titles. The Englishman still won the first set, but was not at all convincing after that.
Pietreczko took the second set, 3-1, after a 12-darter and a 14-darter, and "Pikachu" also won the third set after falling behind 1-2. Set four even went 3-0 to Pietreczko.
The German then broke Humphries immediately in the fifth set with a 19-darter. At a score of 2-2 in that set, Pietreczko was just one leg away from an incredible stunt. 'Pikachu' was not out in five visits, however, and saw Humphries win the set with a 17-darter.
That left nothing to worry about for Pietreczko, who got to start the sixth set. He won the first leg with a 16-darter, but was broken in the third leg by a 13-darter from Humphries. Suddenly the initiative was back with "Cool Hand Luke," who forced a deciding set with a 91 finish.
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In the deciding set Pietreczko was out of the game. Humphries won the seventh set 3-0 to narrowly qualify for the last sixteen in London.
Kieran WoodDarts Journalist
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He contributes to DartsNews.com, where he covers professional darts through news, match reports, analysis, and live coverage across the PDC calendar and major tournaments.
A key part of his work is on-site reporting from leading events. Kieran has covered the PDC World Darts Championship in person, reporting daily from the venue and providing first-hand insight from the tournament. During his coverage, he has conducted interviews with leading players including Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, and Gerwyn Price.
He is also one of the leading voices of the English-language Dartsnews Podcast, contributing regular analysis and discussion on developments across the professional darts circuit.
In his reporting, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles when new, verified information becomes available.
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- Why is this the main story? He chose not to compete in loads of tournaments,yes he's number 1 in the world,but he does have to turn up at tournaments! Play the next world championship in Dortmund and see if he turns up!!rick6727-08-2026
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- I appreciate that littler is a fantastic player,but the top 3 articles are about him. Before he'd thrown a dart in the tournament. Level it out a bit, Taylor and van gerwen soon got disliked as the media could only see them,and nobody else seemed to matterrick6725-08-2026
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- The two-point Lucky Loser qualifiers are Ross Smith, Robb, Whitlock, Sakai, Ilagan and Toylo. Jermaine is not on the entries list on Dartconnect for the TCH qualifier so the four from the main OoM are probably Searle, Nijman, Dobey, Wattimena.Scoobedybop24-08-2026
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