Luke Humphries produced a dominant performance to defeat Paul Lim 3-0 in the second round of the World Darts Championship on Monday night.
Humphries only lost a leg to the 71-year-old Lim, but Lim never intended to intimidate his opponent in a one-sided fight.
Humphries, ranked No. 2 in the world, averaged 109 points in the opening two sets, but dropped to 97 points by the end of the match, showing glimpses of his potential to become world champion in 2024.
“I had to come out and fight him because the crowd was going to be on his side, I knew that,” Humphries, who will face Germany’s Gabriel Clemens in the third round, told Sky Sports Darts.
“Everything was going well when I led 2-0. Obviously the third set wasn’t that good, but I didn’t want to beat him 9-0. That’s not what I really wanted, I wanted to win the set 3-0, but I’m glad he got his feet there in the end.”
“I thought he played okay in the first two sets. He was really clinical in terms of scoring and finishing.”
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Luke Humphries had a bizarre moment when his dart bounced out but ended up back on the dartboard.
Humphries came flying out of the blocks, giving up only one dart to the rim with a double in the entire first set, breaking the “Singapore Slinger” twice.
The former world champion maintained his dominance in the second set, but Lim was simply no match for Humphries’ scoring, which Sky Sports Darts’ Mark Webster described as “ruthless”.
However, in the third set Humphries’ level dropped and Lim was able to get a leg on the board to the delight of the crowd and Humphries himself, and the pair embraced after that leg.
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Paul Lim, who lost the first eight legs, finally won a leg against Humphries
But that was just a consolation as Humphries held his own and held his throw to win the final set 3-1 and secure revenge for his loss to Lim at the world championships five years ago.
“It was really nice to play with him again. I’m a fan of his, but unfortunately he played against me and had some business tonight,” Humphries said.
“That was the greatest atmosphere I’ve ever been a part of. When they called his name, it was the loudest voice I’ve ever heard.”
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Luke Humphries heaped praise on Paul Lim after beating Paul Lim 3-0 to reach the third round at the World Darts Championship
Aspinall also wins, Van Veen wins statement
Jan van Veen defeated Scotland’s Alan Souter 3-1 and recorded the highest average score (108.28) at the world championships so far, underscoring himself as one of the dark horses of the tournament.
Van Veen fell behind after losing the first set, but Soutard missed a dart to win the second set, which was a key turning point in the match.
From there, it was all about the 23-year-old Dutchman winning the next six legs, including a teasing finish in the ‘Big Fish’ (170) to set up a match against Latvia’s Madars Razma, who saw off Scotland’s Darren Beveridge in the early hours of Monday morning.
Van Veen told Sky Sports Darts: “If I continue like this throughout the tournament I’ll go quite far. I’m happy to be back after Christmas.”
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Jan van Veen takes on Alan Soutard at the World Darts Championship, winning the third set with a stunning 170 finish.
Fan favorite Nathan Aspinall whitewashed Leonard Gates 3-0, despite the American’s antics in the practice room before the game, wearing a Chewbacca mask to try to scare opponents.
Although far from his best, Aspinall won all three sets 3-1 and will now face Kevin Doets in the third round after the Dutchman ended Kenya’s David Munyua’s world championship campaign with a 3-0 win.
England’s Charlie Manby continued to impress with a resounding 3-0 victory over America’s Adam Cebeda with only one dropped leg.
Manby, 20, defeated James Wade in a thrilling deciding set tie-break and won the final set 6-4 before facing Ricky Evans in the third round.
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Despite comfortably surpassing Leonard Gates, Nathan Aspinall admits he needs to be better to progress to the later stages of the World Darts Championship
What’s next?
Day 13 of the World Darts Championship on Tuesday, Round 2 will conclude in two sessions at 12:30pm and 7pm, and will be streamed live on Sky Sports Darts.
New Zealand’s Jonny Tata will take on Ryan Meikle on the day, followed by Darryl Gurney taking on Callan Rhys and Jermaine Wattimena taking on Scott Williams. The afternoon session ended with two-time world champion Peter Wright versus Germany’s Arno Melk.
The night sees tournament dark horse Danny Knoppert take on Justin Goode, Gary Anderson takes on Connor Scutt, Michael van Gerwen takes on William O’Connor in what is likely the final of this round and Josh Locke takes on Joe Comito to round out the night.
Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship? Watch every match live and exclusively on Sky Sports’ dedicated darts channel (Sky channel 407) until January 3rd. Stream darts and other top sports now.
