Wayne Mardle: "Luke Humphries is playing the best darts on the planet right now"
PDCFriday, 20 February 2026 at 09:30
Luke Humphries may have fallen short in Glasgow, but Wayne Mardle believes the defending champion is currently the most consistent force in world darts.
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Speaking on Sky Sports after Night Three of the 2026 Premier League Darts, Mardle said:
"I still think Luke Humphries is playing the best darts on the planet right now, the most consistent darts on the planet."
Humphries exited in a 6-5 semi-final defeat to Gian van Veen despite averaging significantly higher, yet Mardle made clear that one narrow loss does not change the bigger picture.
“If he plays like this for a month, he could sew up the playoffs”
Humphries currently sits fifth in the table, just outside the play-off places, trailing fourth-placed Gerwyn Price by a single point. But Mardle sees little cause for concern.
"Yes he has trouble beating Littler, but who doesn't?" Mardle said. "If Luke Humphries plays to this level for another month he could sew up the playoffs already, he could win three weeks and I believe he is playing so well so often, I don't see it going wrong or him going off the boil."
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Luke Humphries is currently fifth in the Premier League Darts 2026 standings
It is a strong endorsement of the world champion’s current level. In a format where weekly titles often dominate headlines, Mardle instead focused on the broader metric of consistency.
"They'll all go through phases, Jonny is, Price we know, maybe Van Gerwen has had a phase, let's hope he's ok for next week," Hawaii 501 explains. "It's what you do in those good spells."
For Mardle, Humphries is maximising his current spell of form even if the weekly trophy has so far eluded him in this campaign.
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Clayton capitalises as Van Gerwen absent
While the analysis centred on Humphries, Night Three itself was claimed by Jonny Clayton.
The Welshman defeated Gian van Veen 6-2 in the final at the OVO Hydro, averaging 104.35 and sealing victory with a spectacular 156 checkout.
Clayton’s run included wins over Gerwyn Price and Luke Littler earlier in the evening, on a night shaped by the illness withdrawal of league leader Michael van Gerwen. The Dutchman’s absence handed Littler a bye to the semi-finals, though the teenager was unable to capitalise in his 6-1 defeat to Clayton.
After three weeks, Clayton leads the standings, with Van Gerwen one point behind and Van Veen moving into third.
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Yet if Mardle’s assessment proves accurate, the player many now consider the most consistent in the field may still be the one quietly building towards a decisive surge.
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
- This is exactly what I mean,littler survives the 1st round,I think you'll find a lot of other players did. Can you just report on the real sport,and not just 1 person. I like Luke,but this is getting boring now,as Kevin painter once said to Taylor!! The sport is about every player,not 1 who everyone seems to have put the sport on the map.,which he hasn't,he's just got in when the money is massive. Great as he is,it seems like what's the point in anyone trying,he's going to win everything,unless it's in Germany or Australia!!!rick6726-08-2026
- I mean look, Littler's picture is first,wattimena is second and he won! Level it up. I know littler is fantastic,but the sport was here before him,and will be when he's retired. Any player in the top 64/128 can beat each other,it's not big news. Poor Jermaine,wins it,and not even the headline!!rick6726-08-2026
- 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
- 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
- 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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