Van Gerwen into play-offs despite Humphries defeat

Seven-time winner Michael van Gerwen clinched his place in the Premier League Darts play-offs despite losing 6-5 to world champion Luke Humphries in the night 15 final in Leeds.

Humphries’ success was his fourth night win of the season, and he matches Van Gerwen and teenager Luke Littler’s record.

It also kept the 29-year-old in contention for top spot, which would see him face the fourth-placed player in the play-offs at London’s O2 Arena on 23 May.

The final week of the regular season will see fixtures decided from the league table standings, so fourth-placed Nathan Aspinall will face Michael Smith, who sits fifth, in the quarter-finals with the winner sealing the final play-off spot.

For Humphries, the victory was a career highlight in the city of his football team Leeds United after they finished third in the Championship and missed out on automatic promotion to the Premier League following a poor run of results.

“I knew it was on me. I knew if I lost, it would have been #LeedsAreFallingApartAgain online,” he told Sky Sports.

“This is one of my greatest experiences in darts. My first major win would be second and the World Championship will always be top, but this is third.”

Humphries won nights six to eight earlier in the season but had failed to reach the final since.

He has admitted to feeling tired as he juggles playing in the Premier League for the first time alongside the regular European Tour and Players Championship events.

However, Humphries was back to his scintillating best for large parts of the evening in a venue he considers home.

He wore a special white shirt with blue and yellow trims and, after teasing he would do so in recent weeks, debuted his new walk-on song I Predict A Riot by Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs.