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The staggering achievement of three incredible players

Luke Humphries joins Phil Taylor and Michael van Gerwen in exclusive club of reaching six major ranking finals in a row but who managed most?

By Paul Nicholson

18:10 · THU October 17, 2024

Luke Humphries is one of only three players ever to reach six major ranking finals in a row but could he match the insane record set by Phil Taylor?

Humphries may have been shocked by Mike de Decker in Sunday's World Grand Prix final in Leicester but defeat must not take much away from this astonishing achievement that requires the highest consistency on the biggest stages spanning many months.

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The fact that only Taylor and Michael van Gerwen managed the feat during their peak eras tells its own story and no other darting legend has ever got close to six in a row - not even the likes of Gary Anderson, Peter Wright and Raymond van Barneveld.

First, let's look back and compare the five different occasions where six or more major ranking finals were reached and what makes these players so special. I'll later discuss where I think the majors could go in 2025 if a peak Power and prime MVG from these eras were both on the circuit.

1. PHIL TAYLOR: MAY 2008 to AUGUST 2010

14 MAJOR RANKED FINALS IN A ROW (AND HE WON THEM ALL!)

World Championship x2 (2009, 2010)
World Matchplay x2 (2008, 2009)
World Grand Prix x2 (2008, 2009)
Grand Slam of Darts x2 (2008, 2009)
European Championship x2 (2008, 2009)
Players Championship Finals (2009)
UK Open 2009
Las Vegas Desert Classic x2 (2008, 2009)

Apart from his two double-start World Grand Prix titles, Taylor posted tournament averages of well over 100 in each of these 18 title runs, with his best being a world record 111.54 in the 2009 European Championship, in which he managed 118.14 against Gary Anderson in the semi-finals.

I was there at the time and I looked at Steve Beaton and said to him: "What the f*** was that? It's unbeatable. Nobody in the world can beat that." He hit everything and perfectly timed. It was like a concerto.

During this time Taylor also won the unranked 2008 Premier League, whilst the 2009 Premier League was the only televised tournament of any kind that he failed to win during this astonishing run as Mervyn King stunned him in the semi-finals.

The streak of 14 major ranked finals in a row was eventually ended in the semi-finals of the 2010 Players Championship - which was held in January that year - when he lost 10-9 to an identity confused, tie wearing Aussie Geordie.

My victory that night - and subsequent title - obviously didn't stop him for long and he went on to win three more ranked majors that year including the 2010 UK Open in which he recorded a stunning 118.66 average against Kevin Painter along the way. It's the highest ever for a ranked major and the fourth highest in all televised events behind Michael van Gerwen's 123.4 in the 2016 Premier League, Kim Huybrechts' 121.97 in the 2017 World Cup and Peter Wright's 119.5 in the 2017 Premier League.

To put this particular era of dominance into perspective, there's only one player who has won more than 14 major titles in their entire career - and that's MVG. Peter Wright and James Wade have seven while Anderson, Gerwyn Price and Luke Humphries have five apiece.

So, for Taylor to win that many in a row is astonishing and will probably never be emulated.

Incredibly there was only one player who beat him twice in finals in all competitions in this period and that was Mark Walsh!

2. MICHAEL VAN GERWEN: MARCH 2016 to JANUARY 2017

SEVEN MAJOR RANKED FINALS IN A ROW, SEVEN TITLES

UK Open 2016 - WON
World Matchplay 2016 - WON
World Grand Prix 2016 - WON
European Championship 2016 - WON
Grand Slam of Darts 2016 - WON
Players Championship Finals 2016 - WON
World Championship 2017 - WON

Michael van Gerwen was virtually unplayable in 2016 and also added the unranked Premier League, Masters and World Series of Darts Finals titles to his tally while the only televised events he didn't win were the Champions League of Darts - when he finished runner-up to Phil Taylor - and the World Cup alongside Raymond van Barneveld as they lost to Taylor and Adrian Lewis in the final.

His tournament winning averages were all above 100 (apart from the World Grand Prix) while his best in a match was 114.05 in the 2017 World Championship semi-finals against Raymond van Barneveld while he also managed a stunning 107.79 against Anderson in the final. Gary actually managed almost 105 and only got three sets from him!

If you look even deeper, he beat Gary Anderson 5-2 in the World Grand Prix final with a 100+ average, which for double-start darts is incredible. He then went to the European Championship and dismantles Mensur Suljovic 11-1 in the final with an average of 111!

Michael was almost as destructive against Dave Chisnall in the final of the Players Championship Finals, averaging 108 in an 11-3 victory.

In this period he also managed a record televised average of 123.5 against Michael Smith in the Premier League.
For me, this is Michael's peak period of his career so far and he was so hot, you just couldn't touch him. It was frightening.
He hardly ever had a bad day throughout the entire year.

In all competitions he played 236 games and only lost 20. That means he won 90% of his games.

As for finals, he reached 36 of them and picked up 26 titles. The players that managed to beat him in these non-major event finals had to play out of their skin. For example, Benito van de Pas edged him out 6-5 in a final where they both averaged over 110 whilst Ian White reached 106 in a jaw-dropping 6-0 victory that nobody could believe! Gary Anderson also managed a highly impressive 99 in a World Series event in Dubai that was played outside.

Taking into account the run explained below, had it not been for the third-round exit of the 2016 World Championship to Raymond van Barneveld, he would have ended up with 14 major ranked finals in a row.

3. MICHAEL VAN GERWEN: MARCH 2015 to DECEMBER 2015

SIX MAJOR RANKED FINALS IN A ROW, FIVE TITLES

UK Open 2015 - WON
World Matchplay 2015 - WON
World Grand Prix 2015 - RUNNER-UP
European Championship 2015 - WON
Grand Slam of Darts 2015 - WON
Players Championship Finals 2015 - WON

During this run, which ended with a shock third-round exit to Raymond van Barneveld at the2016 World Championship, MVG also won the unranked Masters and World Series of Darts Finals while he was also runner-up in the Premier League.

MVG's tournament averages for all these tournaments - apart from the double-start World Grand Prix - were all comfortably well over 100 while his highest in a match was 114.91 against Kim Huybrechts in the UK Open.

Although this was a phenomenal year, winning 174 of his 203 matches at almost 86%, it wasn't quite as ridiculous as the following year.
He reached 22 finals overall and won 18 of them, with Anderson needing to average 105 to defeat him in the climax of the Premier League.

Robert Thornton stunned him in the World Grand Prix final while Michael Smith and Adrian Lewis were the only other players to defeat him with a title on the line.

4. PHIL TAYLOR: JANUARY 2002 to MARCH 2003

SIX MAJOR RANKED FINALS IN A ROW, FIVE TITLES

World Championship 2002 - WON
World Matchplay 2002 - WON
World Grand Prix 2002 - WON
Las Vegas Desert Classic 2002 - WON
World Championship 2003 - RUNNER-UP
UK Open 2003 - WON

Taylor's dominant run of major finals was ended by John Part in the semi-finals of the 2003 Las Vegas Desert Classic but he did go on and win the next four majors at the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix and World Championship - so the setback didn't put him off his stride for long.

Even in this period when 100+ averages were not too common, Phil still managed tournament averages in excess of three figures while his best in a match was 111.21 against Shayne Burgess in the 2002 World Championship second round.

5. LUKE HUMPHRIES: NOVEMBER 2023 AND STILL ONGOING

6 MAJOR RANKED FINALS IN A ROW, FOUR TITLES

Grand Slam of Darts 2023 - WON
Players Championship Finals 2023 - WON
World Championship 2024 - WON
UK Open 2024 - RUNNER-UP
World Matchplay 2024 - WON
World Grand Prix - RUNNER-UP

First thing to point out here; he's not finished yet.

He's going to be heading to Dortmund for the European Championship at the end of this month and the fact he's never won it will be huge motivation for him.

In the last 12 months, which also takes into account the first of his five major titles overall at the 2023 World Grand Prix, he's played 190 games and won 142 of them, giving him a win percentage of around 75%.

In terms of finals across all competitions, he's reached 13 of them and won eight titles. Amongst the ones he has lost, Luke Littler produced an average of 105 to defeat him in the Premier League while Rob Cross reached the same level in a European Tour final.

It's no criticism whatsoever to say his standards aren't as consistently high as a peak Taylor or prime MVG but let's not forget the era of darts that he's playing in has a much wider reaching and deeper talent pool than ever before.

There's more people capable of producing 100+ averages on the floor and stage than ever before and more people who can reach these 110+ numbers than ever.

Humphries has players hitting big averages against him a lot more than Taylor and MVG had to deal with in their peak years so he deserves a huge amount of credit for that.

IF ALL THREE PLAYERS WERE IN THEIR PEAK NOW, WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IN 2025?

This is an impossible question but if the 2008-2010 Phil Taylor and the 2016 Michael van Gerwen were on the darts circuit in 2025, I still think it would be very hard for anyone else to win a major. Even Luke Humphries.

However, it would have been a lot more difficult than it was in their peak years.

Taylor used to be able to turn up to events and bulldoze people. He didn't have players throwing the kind of stuff that Humphries has to deal with. These big 100+ averages happen all the time now.

That said, if you put peak Taylor or MVG against this current crop of talent, I still feel they'd win more titles than anyone else.

I played against both of them in their respective golden eras and they really were that good. It was frightening and exciting at the same time. You wanted to face it just to see how close you could get, even if it was just a leg.

You do have to bear in mind, the higher standards of today's era could bring an even higher level out of Taylor and MVG! There's plenty of examples of times they were pushed by the likes of Raymond van Barneveld, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson and Peter Wright yet still found more gears.

Look at that World Championship final that Taylor played against Barney in 2009. He knew he'd be up against a formidable opponent and came out all guns blazing to average 110 in eight sets. He knew he'd probably have to produce the performance of his life and he went even further than that on the biggest stage of all.

As for MVG, remember when he turned into a hulk to wrestle the world title away from Anderson, who was the two-time champion at the time. Michael had to play at a level in a world final that we'd only ever previously seen by Phil because Gary averaged 105 in 10 sets.

So, it's not like they were just flat-track bullies.

Throw Humphries into the mix and I think it would probably be just the three of them mopping everything up, with Taylor and MVG taking the majority. The only caveat to that would be peak Anderson, Lewis and Wright would also have a say, but that’s a totally different conversation.