Luke Humphries made the most of his second chance in the PDC Home Tour with three sizzling displays to top the table ahead of favourite Michael Smith.
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The Group 28 quartet, which also included Andy Boulton and Mike Van Duivenbode, had all finished runners-up during the online tournament's first stage over the past few weeks and that earned them another opportunity to reach round two.
Although all four players combined produced a consistently higher standard of darts than we've seen in the previous 27 group nights, it was Cool Hand who reached an extra level with averages of 100.9, 108.5 and 97.8 during his three victories.
Humphries had to come through a last-leg decider against Andy Boulton, who posted a mark of 98, in his opening clash before crushing Smith 5-2 with one of the best performances of the whole tournament so far.
The defending PDC youth champion sealed his place in the second stage - which begins on May 26 in another round robin format - with a 5-3 success over the winless Van Duivenbode.
Humphries, who is auctioning off his darts shirt to charity, said: "I cant believe how well I played tonight, I knew I could do it. It's crazy. I played really well tonight. I could get a very tough group but I am going to look forward to the next stage. I am looking forward to it."
Smith was odds-on favourite to progress and looked well on course to do just that when thrashing Van Duivenbode 5-0 in the night's opening match only to come unstuck against Humphries.
The world number five rounded off the evening with a 5-2 triumph over Boulton, who had earlier beaten van Duivenbode 5-4 with a 100 average.
* Although one of Chris Hammer's two tips for the night was Smith to win all three matches, the 11/4 treble of Humphries (v Boulton), Boulton (v van Duivenbode) and Smith (v Boulton) did at least come in.
PDC Home Tour Darts: Thursday results and Friday fixtures
Play begins at 1930 BST each night
Best of nine legs
Click here for Sky Bet odds
GROUP 28 - Thursday May 14
- Michael Smith 5-0 Mike van Duivenbode
- Luke Humphries 5-4 Andy Boulton
- Mike van Duivenbode 4-5 Andy Boulton
- Michael Smith 2-5 Luke Humphries
- Luke Humphries 5-3 Mike van Duivenbode
- Andy Boulton 2-5 Michael Smith
GROUP STANDINGS
- Luke Humphries P 3 W 3 L 0 Leg Diff +6 Pts 6
- Michael Smith P 3 W 2 L 1 Leg Diff +5 Pts 4
- Andy Boulton P 3 W 1 L 2 Leg Diff -3 Pts 2
- Mike van Duivenbode P 3 W 0 L 3 Leg Diff +8 Pts 0
Group 29 - Friday May 15
- Danny Noppert v Ryan Meikle
- John Henderson v Cristo Reyes
- Ryan Meikle v Cristo Reyes
- Danny Noppert v John Henderson
- John Henderson v Ryan Meikle
- Cristo Reyes v Danny Noppert
CLICK HERE FOR FULL TOURNAMENT RESULTS & FIXTURES
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