Unews World
Luke Humphries lost in the first round of the penultimate Players Championship event in Wigan to leave his qualification for November’s finals still unconfirmed heading into Thursday’s final day, as Chris Dobey claimed his third title of the year.
Three days after losing in the final of the European Championship to Gian van Veen in Dortmund, Humphries was beaten 6-5 by Adam Warner in the first round on the first of two consecutive days at the Robin Park Leisure Centre where the final two Players Championship events are being held before the Minehead finals on November 21-23 for the top 64 players on the season-long rankings.
Two-time defending champion Humphries, who was making his 13th appearance in this year’s 33 Players Championship events to this point, is currently in 58th place and £1,000 above the provisional qualification cut-off.
Humphries will now be aiming for a longer run in Players Championship 34 to absolutely secure his place in Minehead, while world champion Luke Littler – who has already qualified for the finals – is able to return on Thursday after missing the 11am registration deadline for the first Wigan event event due to traffic.
Wednesday’s play saw two nine darters.
The first came from Damon Heta in his first-round match against George Killington before Nathan Aspinall followed up his double in the same match at Players Championship 31 earlier this month with another against Ian White.
‘Now I want to start winning TV titles’ – Dobey wants more after Grand Slam spot confirmed
In Wednesday’s final, Dobey edged out William O’Connor 8-6 in a high-quality final with the triumph securing the world No 11 his place in the Grand Slam of Darts, which is live on Sky Sports from November 8.
Dobey, who averaged 102.19 across his seven matches, said: “I’m buzzing because the Grand Slam is a big tournament. I’ve missed out in two of the last three years, so it’s good to be back.
“I’m happy with my game, I’m consistently playing well and picking up titles on the ProTour, and this is what I wanted a few years ago.
“Now I want to start winning TV titles. I cannot keep playing well on TV and not get anything for it, so I’m just going to dig in and keep believing.
“I want to be back with the top players in the world, playing them week in week out, and if I keep producing darts like this, I shouldn’t be too far away.”
After comprehensively beating Greg Ritchie (6-1) Rob Owen (6-2), Jeffrey de Graaf (6-2) and Heta (6-3) to reach the last eight, Dobey next averaged 111.29 to thrash Aspinall 6-2 before delivering another big win, 7-2, over Wessel Nijma in the semi-finals.
The final against O’Connor proved a far tighter affair, though, with a 151 checkout in the 11th leg giving the Irishman a 6-5 lead as he chased his first Players Championship title since 2019.
But Dobey responded immediately with a 12-dart leg to level the match up, before going on to take the next two legs for the eighth Players Championship title of his career.
O’Connor had beaten Thibault Tricole 6-3 in the quarter-finals before claiming a 7-2 victory over Ryan Joyce.
Players Championship 33 – results from final rounds
Last 16
Ryan Joyce 6-5 Richard Veenstra
Cam Crabtree 6-2 Cameron Menzies
William O’Connor 6-5 Chris Landman
Thibault Tricole 6-4 Peter Wright
Gerwyn Price 6-1 Matt Campbell
Wessel Nijman 6-2 Ricky Evans
Nathan Aspinall 6-3 Luke Woodhouse
Chris Dobey 6-3 Damon Heta
Quarter-Finals
Ryan Joyce 6-1 Cam Crabtree
William O’Connor 6-3 Thibault Tricole
Wessel Nijman 6-0 Gerwyn Price
Chris Dobey 6-2 Nathan Aspinall
Semi-Finals
William O’Connor 7-2 Ryan Joyce
Chris Dobey 7-2 Wessel Nijman
Final
Chris Dobey 8-6 William O’Connor
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