Luke Littler won the Premier League (Picture: PDC)

The greatest Premier League Finals Night of all-time: Paul Nicholson reflects on Luke Littler's triumph over Luke Humphries at the O2

Darts

Fri May 29, 2026 · 4h ago

In this week's column, Paul Nicholson looks back on a memorable Premier League Finals night and the season as a whole...

After what can only be described as the greatest overall Premier League Finals night, how do we unpick what we witnessed at The O2 in London?

Over 15,000 darts patrons watched from close quarters, millions watched around the world and not to mention it was live on the biggest sports radio station in the world, talkSPORT.

With a giant slice of recency bias and still allowing the dust to settle, here are my FIVE biggest takeaways from the climax of the 2026 Premier League Darts.

1) Highest average to lose in the final - Luke Humphries (105.60)

In his post match press conference, Luke Humphries told the world that he can push eventual winner, now 2-time champion, Luke Littler, like no other player on the planet. Based on what we saw from that 21-leg final, how can we argue? Nobody has ever averaged that highly and lost in a Premier League final, so that’s one record I am sure Cool hand Luke didn’t want. It took one of the best overall showings at The O2 for Humphries to come up short by just one visit as Littler averaged 111.67 and bagged a small matter of 12 maximums.

These are the high levels that you need to become the premier player these days, and it will be fascinating to see how other finals in the future measure up to this. It's most definitely sure that we aren’t sick of seeing the two Lukes go at it like that. Standard wise, it was the best overall final.

2) It went the distance - That doesn’t happen often.

In fact, it is only the third time since the Premier League started in 2005 that the final match went to a last leg decider. The first time it happened, Peter Wright missed championship darts in 2017, only for Michael Van Gerwen to swoop in and claim his then third title.

Then, we had the epic final in 2022 at The Mercedes Benz Arena in Berlin that saw Joe Cullen miss the most expensive dart in the sports history. £150,000 extra was not bagged when he wired double sixteen for the win, and yet again Michael Van Gerwen stole the title away.

This time around, no match darts were missed by Luke Humphries but he was sitting on double eight at 10-10 only for Luke Littler to bag the win with a clinical shot at double top after a stumble on a missed single fourteen.

3) All legs played on finals night

Miraculously, all 59-legs were played on the 28th May. To say the audience at both the arena and at home got their monies worth is a slight understatement.

First, Littler v Price served up a wild comeback game, only for The Nuke to get over the line by the finest of margins.

Then, just when we didn’t think things would get much more nail biting, Jonny Clayton missed a £60,000 dart in the 19th leg versus Luke Humphries and it was Cool Hand who made his way to the final for the third consecutive year.

The players weren’t done as the final had a maximum 21-legs, just to put the cherry on the top of a magnificent evening of tungsten drama.

4) Luke v Luke - Are we tired of it?

The short answer is no. Think about all of the rivalries that we have had in Premier League Darts over the years. Taylor v Barney, Wright v Van Gerwen, Wade v Lewis. This is right up there and far from finished.

When they can captivate and keep 15,000 live darts fans permanently glued to the edge of their seats for the maximum amount of game time, there is no way you can say the battle between the numbers one and two is ever stale.

People who were in attendance on Thursday night at The O2 all said that it was the best crowd London has ever assembled, not just for numbers or interaction, but for sheer moments of silence that haunted the big moments that transpired on the stage. That crowd knew what they were watching and they didn’t want to miss a shot. They, I am sure wanted to see that fixture and they weren’t leaving the old millennium dome disappointed.

5) Best finals night ever?

OK, I get it, we have just experienced it and we all have recency bias. I listened to Laura Woods and Ally McCoist on talkSPORT the morning after speaking about 2010 at Wembley Arena. That was the night that Phil Taylor hit two nine darters in one match for the first time and we had the iconic commentary of Dave Lanning and Sid Waddell. Taylor’s game with Wade was truly historic, but as a battle I have Luke v Luke 2026 as a better contest. Add to that the TWO 19-leg thrillers in the semi-finals involving Clayton and Price.

I am not sure what else you could possibly ask for when it comes to the culmination of a 17-week roadshow. Yes, we didn’t get as many 9-darters as 2025, we didn’t get a 170 finish on Thursday the 28th May, but we had so much more drama than previous years and this will live long in the memory for all concerned, for the right reasons.

In the words of many backstage after it was all said and done, “I need a lie down after that.”