Will Humphries progress to the semi-finals?
Gary Anderson narrowly avoided a comeback by Rob Cross in the last 16 of the 2022 World Darts Championship. In the meantime still with a 3:2 lead and 2:0 in the sixth set “The Flying Scotsman” missed big chances to win the match and had to play against “Voltage” Cross in the all deciding seventh set.
As his opponent already missed a great chance in the second leg of the final set to take a 2:0 lead, Gary Anderson came out on top after a great third leg and after numerous missed matchdarts still managed to book his ticket for the quarterfinals of the World Championship 2022. Now the next tough task will be against Luke Humphries
Gary Anderson’s opponent on Saturday also progressed into the last 16 after trailing. At one stage “Cool Hand Luke” was even two sets behind, but it was not until the fifth set that the world number 19 turned up the heat and claimed a well-deserved victory over Dobey.
Luke Humphries will be aiming to reach the semi-finals of the World Darts Championship for the first time in his career on Saturday night. So far the 26-year-old Englishman has reached the quarter-finals of a World Championship twice. But in both cases Humphries had to drop out. Last time at the World Championship 2020 where “Cool Hand Luke” was eliminated by Peter Wright.
Luke Humphries – Statistics & current form
Luke Humphries continues to cause a stir at the 2022 World Cup. After the “whitewash” against Rodriguez and the walkover against Chisnall the 26-year-old also got a deserved win against Chris Dobey. Despite being behind, the Englishman fought his way back into the match against his compatriot and thus booked his ticket to the quarter-finals for the third time in his fifth World Championship participation.
On Saturday evening, the fairy tale will continue against Gary Anderson in the “Ally Pally”. Although “Cool Hand Luke” has already lost two out of three matches against “The Flying Scotsman”, Humphries is confident for the quarterfinals of the World Championship 2022. Encouraging is especially the youngest average the 26-year-old played in his last matches.
Luke Humphries recently had an average of 97.77. Over seven sets, “Cool Hand Luke” also threw the maximum score of 180 14 times. The impressive checkout rate of 43.90% was also commendable. If this continues, it cannot be ruled out that a bet on the 26-year-old Englishman will also pay off in Humphries vs Anderson.
Next 180 show from Humphries?
The first two sets will set the tone against Gary Anderson. After all, Humphries already got off to a false start against Dobey and only got going in the course of the match. Nevertheless, the victory in the deciding set was by no means convincing. Humphries only checked out a “40” in the fifth attempt.
The last time “Cool Hand Luke” met Gary Anderson he lost to “The Flying Scotsman” on the PDC Home Tour in May 2020. In the best-of-11-leg-mode Humphries only got one leg and escaped a “whitewash” against Anderson. The clear defeat was surprising because Humphries played with an average of 101,97.
But in the decisive moments the Englishman didn’t have the necessary checkout quota to defy the two-time World Champion from Scotland.
Last matches of Luke Humphries:
World Darts Championship
12/30 2021 – Chris Dobey 3 – 4 Luke Humphries
12/29 2021 – Dave Chisnall 0 – 0 Luke Humphries
12/22 2021 – Luke Humphries 3 – 0 Rowby John Rodriguez
Players Championship Finals
11/27 2021 – Jonny Clayton 10 – 9 Luke Humphries
11/27 2021 – Ross Smith 5 – 6 Luke Humphries
Gary Anderson – stats & recent form
Gary Anderson started as world number six into the 2022 World Darts Championship and was one of the outsiders at the “Ally Pally” before the tournament started. In the meantime the 51 year old “Oldie” already fought his way into the quarterfinals and now has a realistic chance to reach the final of a PDC World Championship for the second time in a row.
Last year “The Flying Scotsman” lost the final against Gerwyn Price and missed his third World Championship title of his current career. Before Gary Anderson had already been crowned World Champion in 2015 and 2016. Among others “The Flying Scotsman” defeated in the final of the World Championship 2015 PDC icon Phil Taylor.
As Gary Anderson so far flew under the radar and hardly convinced at the important Majors in 2021, the sixth of the world ranking list is still not among the favourites for the title. Players like Price, Smith and Wright – at least according to the bookmakers – are still ahead of the game.
Will Gary Anderson hold his nerve this time?
In the last two rounds “The Flying Scotsman” had to fight for his ticket for the next round of the World Championship 2022 in the seventh set. In his match against Ian White in the round of the last 32 Gary Anderson was even three sets behind. It was only in the following sets that the 51-year-old turned up the heat and claimed a close comeback victory.
Among other things, the world number six also profited from the missed match darts of his opponent. In the sixth set for example Ian White missed a 79 and was punished by the “Flying Scotsman”.
To master the match against a high average player like Luke Humphries there is no room for careless mistakes on Saturday evening. Betting fans who are expecting a competitive match this time around can pick up odds of 1.83 on Humphries vs. Anderson for a bet on more than 7.5 sets in the match.
Last matches of Gary Anderson:
World Darts Championship
12/30 2021 – Gary Anderson 4 – 3 Rob Cross
12/29 2021 Gary Anderson 4 – 3 Ian White
12/16 2021 – Gary Anderson 3 – 1 Adrian Lewis
Players Championship Finals
11/27 2021 – Michael van Gerwen 10 – 6 Gary Anderson
11/27 2021 – Ryan Meikle 2 – 6 Gary Anderson
Luke Humphries – Gary Anderson Direct comparison / H2H record
For the fourth time Luke Humphries and Gary Anderson meet. So far the “oldie” Anderson won twice against “Cool Hand Luke”. Humphries on the other hand only celebrated a win against the world number six from Scotland in the Premier League 2020. At that time Luke Humphries won 7:5 in the best-of-12.
Luke Humphries – Gary Anderson Tip
The world number six from Scotland stumbled in the last two World Championship rounds. Nevertheless Gary Anderson prevailed against Ian White and Rob Cross. The latter was even counted among the co-favourites for the current 2022 World Cup, so the victory of the two-time Scottish World Champion was all the more surprising.
In the quarterfinals of the World Championship 2022 Gary Anderson now has to improve a lot to master the Saturday match against Luke Humphries. “Cool Hand Luke” plays a strong World Championship so far and eliminated Chris Dobey from the competition after a 1:3 deficit. In the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup, Humphries even had an average of 97.77.
If he follows up on that, Luke Humphries has a realistic chance to win the match against Gary Anderson as well. The checkout quota of the Englishman is the most important factor. In his last match the 26-year-old had a checkout rate of 43,90%. Among other things, Humphries even checked out a “121” in the course of the match.
With a stake of four units, we therefore place our bet on Humphries vs. Anderson at odds of 3.05 on a win for “Cool Hand Luke” with at least a two-set lead.
