Humphries and Clayton survives scares at Nordic Darts Masters

Luke Humphries and Jonny Clayton survived scares on the opening night of the Nordic Darts Masters to book their places in the quarter-finals in Copenhagen.

Humphries and Clayton were taken to the wire by Madars Razma and Darius Labanauskas respectively on Friday, before both prevailing 6-5 to progress in the third event of this year’s World Series.

Fresh from his Premier League triumph, world number one Humphries immediately found himself on the back foot against Razma, who took out 105 and 120 for an early 2-0 lead.

However, ‘Cool Hand’ responded with two 14-darters and a 15-darter to turn the contest around. He then took out 81 on the bull – after his opponent wired double 11 for a 124 – on the way to a 5-2 lead.

Humphries struggled to get over the line, though, missing four match darts, and the Latvian took advantage with 14 and 15-darters to force a decider. Yet, the world number one delivered when under it with a superb 125 checkout on the bull seeing him over the line.

Meanwhile, Clayton survived two match darts in a high-quality with Labanauskas – and what was his first World Series appearance in over 18 months.

Despite hitting 11-dart, 12-dart, 14-dart and 15-dart legs – as well as landing a superb 170 checkout – ‘the Ferret’ faced a deciding leg after the Lithuanian, who earlier took out 120, crashed in 154 in the 10th.

The former World Championship quarter-finalist stood on the brink of victory, but wired two darts at tops, and a relieved Clayton eventually pinned double five to scrape through.

There were no such problems for Premier League semi-finalist Nathan Aspinall, who hit a top checkout of 138 on the way to inflicting Benjamin Reus’ fourth 6-0 whitewash in as many Nordic Masters appearances.

Reigning champion Gerwyn Price averaged just over 100 to defeat Cor Dekker 6-3, despite the Norwegian battling back from 5-0 down to threaten an unlikely comeback, while Luke Littler reeled off the last four legs from 3-2 behind to see off fellow Copenhagen debutant Viktor Tingstrom by the same scoreline.

Top seed Stephen Bunting was also a 6-3 winner over Oskar Lukasiak, who hit a top checkout of 118, as Chris Dobey – a late call-up following Michael van Gerwen’s withdrawal – recorded finishes of 90 and 78 in a 6-2 victory over Jeffrey de Graaf.

Dutch Darts Masters champion Rob Cross battled past Andreas Harrysson 6-4 in the other first-round encounter.

After the first four legs went against the throw, Cross held his nerve before wrapping up the victory in style against the throw by checking out 76 with two double 18s.

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Nordic Darts Masters 2025 Results

Friday June 6

First Round

6pm-10pm
Chris Dobey 6-2 Jeffrey de Graaf
Gerwyn Price 6-3 Cor Dekker
Rob Cross 6-4 Andreas Harrysson
Luke Humphries 6-5 Madars Razma
Nathan Aspinall 6-0 Benjamin Reus
Luke Littler 6-3 Viktor Tingstrom
Stephen Bunting 6-3 Oskar Lukasiak
Jonny Clayton 6-5 Darius Labanauskas