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Luke Littler and Peter Wright

Who will be Luke Humphries' biggest threats in the closing months of the 2024 darts season? Plus five players under the radar who could catch the eye

By Paul Nicholson

Darts

Sun September 01, 2024 · 2M ago

Summer is virtually over which means we’re on the cusp of a hectic period in the darts calendar where we’ll see five televised majors prior to the season-ending World Championship.

That’s not to mention the conclusion of the European Tour and Players Championship campaigns.

World number one Luke Humphries is obviously going to be a key contender to pick up more major titles having collected five of them in a remarkable 12 months since breaking his duck at last October’s World Grand Prix – but who are his biggest threats?

Michael van Gerwen is an obvious pick as world number two but his only title of any kind this season was a World Series event way back in January so I’m going to look elsewhere for players you need to keep an eye on.

CHRIS DOBEY

Chris Dobey has already tasted televised success in the 2023 Masters but for him to kick on to the next stage of his career like Humphries did this time 12 months ago, winning another big ranked event will be crucial. He certainly has what it takes.

Hollywood has become a player who wins multiple events in a season and in 2024 he’s picked up a pair of Players Championship titles and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he picks up a couple more.

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If you look at this season’s Players Championships as a whole, his average of more than 98 over 49 matches is second only to Gary Anderson, who has been top of those statistics all year and is currently averaging nearly 101.

Dobey is playing better than he ever has and considering he also has experience of winning on the big stage, there’s no reason why he can’t go on and challenge for glory at the World Grand Prix. He’s a double start specialist and has had good runs in this event before so he will be among the favourites.

I also think it’s commendable how he’s enjoyed such a good season despite that heartbreaking defeat to Rob Cross on January 1st when he lost a 4-0 lead at Ally Pally. That could have broken some player’s careers, but he’s bounced back so well.

If anything, it's made him better.

DAMON HETA

Damon is another player who's having a really great season. He’s won multiple titles, he’s in the top 10 in the averages and his work ethic is second to none.

A lot of leading players are known for taking breaks in the schedule but he doesn’t miss a single tournament. He just keeps playing and has chalked up more matches than anyone else in the top 10 of the averages.

That makes his average of 96 in Players Championships this season even more impressive but the big question is whether he can take his incredible floor form onto the stage.

His European Tour form could be better and if that improves then he’ll be a greater threat in the big majors and we all want him to succeed.

He’ll look at players like Andrew Gilding and Danny Noppert picking up majors in recent seasons and feel he’s not achieving what his talent deserves. However, the longer the wait goes on, the harder it becomes. Just ask the likes of Dave Chisnall.

LUKE LITTLER

Sure, this pick is a little on the ‘obvious’ side but considering he’s ranked 23 in the world then I think it’s fair to include him!

Luke has obviously been the most talked about dart player all year having won the Premier League on debut and has also picked up more ranked tournaments than anyone else in 2024.

Sadly his record of lifting a trophy in every month this season came to an end in August but let that take absolutely nothing away from everything he has achieved so far.

The way he’s handled all the hype and expectancy to reproduce his brilliance in any kind of tournament has been incredible so it’ll be interesting to see how he handles the September to December period when the majors come thick and fast.

He doesn't really have any weaknesses when it comes to playing darts in any sort of format and we’ll soon find out what he’s like at the double-start format when he makes his World Grand Prix debut.

ROB CROSS

You wouldn't believe how much I've been beating Rob Cross’ drum for the last couple of years and even though he made the semi-finals of the World Championship, it always seems that nobody is talking about him in the same breath as leading names around him.

Mark Walsh once said to me that I was a red-carpet darts player because I’d still get attention despite not being the best in the world. Well, at the minute Cross is quite the opposite and not getting the attention he deserves.

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As a two-time European champion, he’d dearly love to make it a hat-trick of titles towards the end of October in Dortmund and that’s where one of his best chances will be.

I’m not convinced about his World Grand Prix hopes because he doesn’t like double-start darts and his record in that event is pretty poor but I definitely see him winning one of the other majors this year.

I think because he set the bar so high for himself when he burst onto the scene in such spectacular style, it’s been hard for him to maintain the wow factor so there’s plenty of opportunities coming up for him to make some big statements.

ROSS SMITH

What's not to love? Ross Smith is your quintessential 21st century superstar dart player in my opinion. He’s making great strides in his career and far from being the finished article.

Not only has he added another Players Championship title to his collection this season but he’s reached two European Tour finals and behind the scenes he’s working so hard on his game.

I admire Ross more than most people on tour and if you look at the way he acquits himself week in, week out, people can learn a lot from him.

He's got a big four months coming up because he's defending a six-figure cheque at the European Championship, which he won two years ago, and his ranking will suffer if he doesn't enjoy some good runs.

Ross can handle that pressure and if anything it could scare him into playing better – especially at the European Championship.

He’s a technically sound player and his opponents know that if they don’t score well, he’ll strangle them.

DARK HORSES TO WATCH

As well as the aforementioned title contenders, I’ve been impressed with another set of five players who probably aren’t ready to win a major yet – but can make big impressions at the forthcoming majors.

CAMERON MENZIES

Back in March-April time, I was at a European Tour event in Sindelfingen analysing some numbers and noticed that Cameron Menzies was really starting to trend in the right direction.

Then, a month later we go to the Netherlands and watch him butcher Raymond van Barneveld in front of his home crowd and I thought ‘hang on a minute, what has happened to you?!’

He used to be an exciting player to watch but would often fold when finding himself in a pressure situation.

Cameron doesn't do that anymore. He's flipped everything around and now people can’t stop watching him because he's not only playing well, he's playing well under pressure.

Playing the best darts of his life has helped him qualify for the World Grand Prix and we’re now going to be seeing him throwing a lot more big-stage darts between now and the end of the year. The time has come to take him a lot more seriously than ever before.

In the past people questioned his attitude because nobody wanted him to waste his talent. It’s frightening. His levels are high now but we don’t know what his best is yet.

His ability to compact the darts together in scoring is in the top 2% in the world and if he puts all of the rest of his game together, there’s actually no reason why he can’t be a shock major champion in the next 12-18 months.

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DARYL GURNEY

When assessing form, people tend to look at who’s won tournaments but if you dig a little deeper you’ll notice Daryl Gurney has reached a final and had plenty of other decent runs.

He’s been making steady progress back up the rankings after a difficult time on and off the oche which coincided with him losing his Premier League spot.

As a result he’s used this time away from the spotlight to regather his form and if you look at the stats, he’s trending in the right direction even if it’s not dramatically vertical yet.

It's like watching a share on the index. It just keeps improving ever so slightly and you start to get excited about the potential of a sharp spike.

If Daryl continues this incline, something big is going to happen in the next six months. Whether it happens in the next three or four is debatable but I'm still convinced that he's going to be popping at some point.

WESLEY PLAISIER

My next selection doesn’t even have a PDC Tour Card!

Yet despite that he managed to reach back-to-back Players Championship finals back in July and he got everybody's attention.

By virtue of his Challenge Tour position he’s going to be in more events by the end of the year and the runs he’s enjoyed so far will probably be enough to see him qualify for the World Championship.

He’s also going to defend his World Masters title in Hungary in September so he’s got a lot of darts ahead of him and there’s no reason why he won’t be making darts fans sit up and take notice over the coming months.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes a deep run in the Players Championship Finals in Minehead having done enough to qualify via the opportunities he’s had to pick up ranking points.

The strength of the non tour card holders is bigger than ever because of all the tournaments they play in away from the PDC’s main tour, such as the Modus Super Series and beyond.

Their form is a lot sharper than a lot of pros and two players that epitomise that more than anybody at the minute are Wesley and Connor Scutt.

PETER WRIGHT

This choice may raise eyebrows but I believe there’s light at the end of what has been a long tunnel in the career of Peter Wright.

He dropped out of the world’s top 10 after this lengthy - and well-publicised - loss of form so he can now rebuild and work on his game without the same degree of attention that he experienced earlier in the campaign.

Peter showed clear signs of improvement during the World Series events in Australia and New Zealand throughout August and his track record of battling through tough spells in his career is second to none.

He has self-belief and confidence in his team , while he is still hungry to achieve success in this game.

He's got this stubborn quality of “I want more” and you certainly need that to strive in this ruthless sport.

A lot of people were beginning to write him off this time last season after a poor year but what did he no next? He won the European Championship out of nowhere – so don’t write him off doing it again from under the radar.

He really needs some encouraging results heading into the World Championship and while there’s 62 players with a higher seasonal average than him in 2024 in players championships, his experience and ability to perform under pressure can’t be ignored.

WESSEL NIJMAN

I know there are still some people who will still want to focus on Wessel’s past in troll-like fashion but let’s forget about it now and embrace the player that he is.

He’s served his punishment and is now solely focused on rebuilding his reputation with an array of superb performances.

Not only is he bossing the Development Tour and posting some incredible numbers, he’s also reached a Players Championship final and must be taken seriously.

He’s part of an exciting crop of players that have emerged from the Development Tour and just like Luke Littler and Gian van Veen, he’s proving he can handle the step up in class at such an early stage in his career.

Everyone will want to avoid him in the draw for the Players Championship Finals and a big run there wouldn’t shock me at all.

As far as Dutch darts is concerned, they do have a massive future with a lot of young stars, and this guy is at the forefront of that.

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