World Darts Championship 2026: Luke Humphries units up second spherical showdown with 71-year-old Paul Lim

Luke Humphries arrange a second-round conflict with Paul Lim after his 3-1 victory over Ted Evetts on the World Darts Championship.

​​​​​​The world No 2 declared “war” heading into this match as he seems to be to change into a two-time world champion and reclaim the world No 1 spot from Luke Littler. He received that activity off to the strongest begins with a 98.58 common, 33.33 per cent on the doubles, and eight 180s.

Now he has the prospect of the one and solely Lim within the second spherical. 71-year-old Lim is the oldest ever competitor at a PDC World Darts Championship and now the oldest winner after his opening spherical win over Jeffrey de Graaf.

The final time Humphries met Lim on this stage was again in 2021 when the 2024 world champion fell to a primary spherical 3-2 loss.

The rematch will see a special Humphries altogether tackle Lim with rafts of majors to his identify nevertheless he is aware of that the gang might not be on his aspect within the battle.

“I was good at the start, I felt really good but then in that third set I fell asleep, to be honest – I maybe relaxed too much,” Humphries informed Sky Sports.

“Credit to Ted, he received on me once I wasn’t at my greatest, however I managed to seek out that particular stuff ultimately. I’m actually happy with the way in which I managed to come back again.

[On facing Paul Lim in second round]: “It’s amazing. He’s a legend. The hardest thing for me is that he loves me to bits.

“I discuss to Paul quite a bit and he at all times says to me, ‘you are my favorite participant’. It’s exhausting to go and play him – the gang are going to be towards me, so it is going to be a troublesome sport.”

Humphries placed on a clinic within the first set as he was strolling off the stage with Evetts having barely blinked, a 104.86 common giving him all of the momentum as he rattled off three legs on the spin.

Evetts put up a bit extra of a struggle within the second set however may solely take one leg, a sensational 138 checkout asserting Humphries’ domination as he prolonged his lead.

However, Evetts went on to assert the third set and switch what seemed like a procession for Humphries into an actual contest, ‘Cool Hand’ out of the blue discovering his scoring out of nowhere as T20s landed to clinch the fourth set and arrange the Lim rematch everybody has been ready for.

Lim lives as much as legendary standing on Palace return

Lim lived as much as his legendary standing and pulled off a Christmas miracle as he battled to a 3-1 victory over Jeffrey de Graaf.

He got here out to rapturous assist from the gang and with that, Alexandra Palace willed in each dart he threw.

That helped within the first set as Lim broke De Graaf’s throw within the opening leg after which held his nerve to scrub up on D4 for the 1-0 lead. However, De Graaf then discovered his most hitting to stage issues up shortly.

That didn’t deter the ‘Singapore Slinger’ as he discovered some clutch visits as soon as once more, a break of throw plus a 100 checkout transferring him 2-1 forward.

His robust ending took the Ally Pally noise to new heights and after holding his throw twice, Lim fired in 56 on tops to wrap up a monumental victory 43 years on from his world championship debut in his twenty seventh championship.

“First and foremost, I’m thankful to be here and I’m thankful to this crowd behind me. Just to make it here is an achievement.

“No matter how good you might be, there are occasions the place you’ll be able to miss a shot, and you’ve got simply received to take benefit.

“I just took the advantage and I’m glad.”

“Luke Humphries, I’ve been watching the last few years and he puts so much effort and time into what he’s doing.

“He’s man, a gentleman and an amazing participant. I simply hope on a given day it could actually occur once more. He’s good however will be crushed.”

Nijman places 2025 type into motion as Clemens delivers

Wessel Nijman put his 2025 type into apply with a complete 3-0 victory over Karel Sedlacek.

In the primary set the thirty first seed got here out firing with an outstanding 111.17 common in what’s the greatest set to this point on this worlds, his energy scoring setting him aside alongside along with his doubling, leaving Sedlacek no room for manoeuvre.

The second set then simply noticed Nijman maintain his opponent at arms size with maximums flowing and his doubling on level, breaks of throw the important thing to the third set as he pinned D12 to ebook his spot in spherical two.

Meanwhile, Gabriel Clemens cantered to a 3-0 win over Alex Spellman, his Big Fish within the opening set the spotlight from the 2023 semi-finalist who took out a outstanding eight legs on the spin.

Anderson survives a scare as debutant Davies units up Littler bout

Two-time world champion Gary Anderson survived an enormous scare as ‘The Flying Scotsman’ recovered from 2-1 right down to deny Adam Hunt in a deciding set with the help of six 180s and two Shanghai checkouts.

It was a thumbs up for Andrew Gilding who averaged 97.9 and landed a powerful 161 checkout in overcoming debutant Cam Crabtree.

The former UK Open champion dispatched Crabtree 3-1 as he seems to be to land a profession greatest run at Alexandra Palace.

David Davies sealed an outstanding debut win towards Mario Vandenbogaerde in straight units to arrange a mouth-watering conflict towards world No 1 Luke Littler.

The Welshman, who’s an space supervisor for the NHS and has needed to take annual depart to be at Alexandra Palace, is now assured £25,000 for reaching the second spherical.

Davies was in bullish temper forward of his conflict with Littler on Sunday, December 21: “I am going to be the underdog in every game I play, but I deserve to be here.”

Luke Woodhouse, who reached the final 16 eventually 12 months’s match, recovered from dropping the opening set to win 9 out of the following 12 legs towards Boris Krcmar.

What’s subsequent?

Sunday December 14 on the World Darts Championship sees one other bumper double session day of motion dwell on Sky Sports Darts.

In the afternoon session from 12.30pm we see Ritchie Edhouse v Jonny Tata, Dom Taylor v Oskar Lukasiak, Richard Veenstra v Nitin Kumar, and Joe Cullen v Bradley Brooks.

In the night, from 7pm, we then have Lukas Wenig up towards Wesley Plaisier, Dimitri Van den Bergh enjoying Darren Beveridge, Stephen Bunting going through Sebastian Bialecki, and James Hurrell vs Stowe Buntz

Who will win the Paddy Power World Darts Championship? Watch each match completely dwell till January 3 on Sky Sports’ devoted darts channel (Sky channel 407). Stream darts and extra prime sport with NOW.