{"id":12613,"date":"2026-05-07T07:14:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T00:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/?p=12613"},"modified":"2026-05-07T07:14:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T00:14:39","slug":"homecoming-for-humphries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/homecoming-for-humphries\/","title":{"rendered":"Homecoming for Humphries?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Luke Humphries returns to his home venue of Leeds to continue his pursuit of a Premier League Play-Off spot on Night Fourteen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leeds plays host to a crucial night of league action, as Humphries takes on Josh Rock in a pivotal match in the race for The O2.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The defending champion is hunting his third consecutive nightly win at the arena, claiming glory in both his previous appearances in Leeds in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the world number two is just one of just three players yet to claim nightly glory, occupying sixth in the standings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A significant quarter-final win against Michael van Gerwen and run to the final in Aberdeen last week kept Humphries in contention for the Play-Offs, but there is work still to do if he is to defend his title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;<em>It&#8217;s always something that I look forward to at the start of the season,<\/em>&#8221; proclaimed Humphries, who currently sits two points adrift of fourth-placed Van Gerwen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s my favourite night of the year in the Premier League and where I get the best support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The good thing for me is I need these points more than ever. The last two years I didn&#8217;t really need them. It might make me up for it even more than I usually am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It was a massive game against Michael last week. I&#8217;ve put myself right back in the game.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>League leader Littler, meanwhile, has already sealed his spot at The O2, sitting on 34 points after claiming five nightly victories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The World Champion takes on Van Gerwen in a crucial match for the Dutchman, while Littler still hopes to top the table for a third consecutive year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With three weeks to go, the 19-year-old is also eyeing the opportunity to match or break his own record of six nightly wins from last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Obviously I always want to be top of the table,&#8221; announced Littler, who won in Aberdeen last week to leapfrog Jonny Clayton into top spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I know Jonny [Clayton] says he wants to get to The O2 and we&#8217;ve both qualified, so now I want to chase and hopefully break my own records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I can definitely say I&#8217;m relaxed now. I saw before play that me and Jonny had the Q [on the table] so I knew I was going back to The O2 for the third consecutive year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Now I can go chasing my records. Three nights left, I&#8217;ll try and grab as many nightly wins as I can.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elsewhere, Clayton &#8211; who has too confirmed his qualification for a fourth-consecutive Finals Night &#8211; takes on compatriot Gerwyn Price, as the former World Champion hopes to consolidate his position in third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Price has reached The O2 in two of his last three campaigns, and has a five-point buffer over Gian van Veen in fifth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the other quarter-final, Dutch number one Van Veen hopes to bolster his chances of making Finals Night on debut as he faces Stephen Bunting in the fourth quarter-final of the evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The World Championship runner-up is level on points with Humphries and two behind a Play-Off spot, also looking for his first nightly win of the season.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bunting&#8217;s situation is more precarious, sitting in seventh and seven points adrift of a Play-Off spot, but he will take encouragement from the fact his sole nightly win in Belfast included a 6-2 triumph over Van Veen in the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ranking points will be awarded per night &#8211; with five to the winner, three to the runner-up and two to the semi-finalists &#8211; to form the league table from which the top four players will progress to Finals Night at The O2 in London on Thursday May 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>SCHEDULE<br>Quarter-Finals<br><\/strong>Gerwyn Price v Jonny Clayton<br>Luke Littler v Michael van Gerwen<br>Josh Rock v Luke Humphries<br>Gian van Veen v Stephen Bunting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luke Humphries returns to his home venue of Leeds to continue his pursuit of a Premier League Play-Off<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-12613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-darts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2025PL11_QF_Humphries02-copy-scaled.jpg",2560,1709,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2025PL11_QF_Humphries02-copy-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2025PL11_QF_Humphries02-copy-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2025PL11_QF_Humphries02-copy-768x513.jpg",640,428,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2025PL11_QF_Humphries02-copy-1024x684.jpg",640,428,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2025PL11_QF_Humphries02-copy-1536x1025.jpg",1536,1025,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2025PL11_QF_Humphries02-copy-2048x1367.jpg",2048,1367,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2025PL11_QF_Humphries02-copy-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2025PL11_QF_Humphries02-copy-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/category\/newsbeat\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2025PL11_QF_Humphries02-copy-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12614,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12613\/revisions\/12614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}