3 minute read

The World Darts Championship draws to a close on Wednesday night with a fitting finale, as newly crowned world number one Luke Humphries takes on teenage sensation Luke Littler.

This year's tournament has been like a Hollywood blockbuster, so many different stories have been written, leading to what should be an epic final tungsten tussle.

We've seen sudden death deciders, top seeds being dumped out and the emergence of a 16-year-old darting dynamo, who was only taking his GCSE exams seven months ago.

The draw opened up for the unseeded Luke Littler, the highest ranked player he has faced is the eighth seed Rob Cross in the semi-final, and despite his age, you could arguably say that it may be one of the best chances he will ever have to win the Sid Waddell trophy.

However, he faces Luke Humphries, the new world number one, and Cool Hand Luke was the talk of the town before The Nuke rocked up and stole his thunder. 

Humphries failed to hit the ground running in his first few matches, which very nearly resulted in an early exit, but he has found his best form at the right time and if both players live up to the hype then we could be about to witness one of the best finals that the world stage has ever seen.

Evening session (20:00 GMT)

Luke Littler vs Luke Humphries

All roads in this year's World Darts Championship lead to this fitting finale and we have several selections for you to feast your eyes upon. 

The first one concerns Luke Littler, who has lit up the tournament with some stunning darts, beating former world champions Raymond Van Barneveld and Rob Cross along the way.

Littler has rocked in 180s for fun during the tournament, including 16 in his comfortable 6-2 semi-final win over Cross, which took him to 50 maximums overall in this year's competition.

We're backing 'The Nuke' to continue his maximum hitting form with over 18.5 180s in the final.

Given the attention on Littler, it has been easy to let Luke Humphries go under the radar, but Cool Hand Luke has found his best form at the right time, with his performance against Scott Williams being close to darting perfection.

Humphries had an average 108.74 in his thrashing of Williams, the best in this year's tournament, and he also rocked in 14 180s and took out six 100+ checkouts including a 170.

That was the sort of form Humphries produced to win the Grand Slam of Darts and the Players Championship and he will definitely be Littler's toughest test. 

We're backing Humphries to continue his lethal finishing form and his highest checkout to be over 140.5.

This is one of the toughest finals to call for a long time, with Littler's confidence making him a force to be reckoned with and Cool Hand Luke's calmness under pressure has helped him get to this point, with the sudden death victory over Joe Cullen epitomising this.

If we had to pick one thing that would sway this match to either player, it would be experience, as Humphries has found that knack of winning major finals in recent months and has beaten former world champions Cross, Gerwyn Price and Michael Van Gerwen in them finals. 

We're edging with Humphries here in the battle of the Lukes and we think he will win a tight game in over 10.5 sets.

Luke Humphries to win in over 10.5 sets

Luke Littler to hit over 18.5 180s

Luke Humphries' highest checkout- over 140.5