Luke Littler and Luke Humphries “let their country down” insists Dennis Priestley
Former World Champion Dennis Priestley believes Luke Littler and Luke Humphries “let their country down” with their performance at the recent World Cup of Darts.
The world number one and two were dumped out of the tournament in their opening match by hosts Germany, with Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko running out comfortable 8-4 winners in the Last 16.
Humphries had delivered World Cup glory for England alongside Michael Smith in 2024, but his first-time partnership with Littler proved fruitless.
Former PDC World Pairs champion Priestley has criticised the attitude and performance of the England duo – who reportedly did not arrive at the venue together or sit together pre-match.
“Luke Littler and Luke Humphries let their country down at the World Cup of Darts, from what we’ve heard they weren’t sitting together or practising together,” Priestley told OLBG.
“When I was playing in pairs with Phil Taylor we practised together and sat together, we played all over the world and I only remember us getting beaten once.
“If you go on and win the tournament without practising then it doesn’t matter, but when you go out without winning a game as the big favourites, it’s not a good look.
“Having said that, I think they will learn from the experience and come back stronger. Don’t be surprised to see them lifting the trophy next year.”
Prior to their match against Germany, it was announced that both Humphries and Littler had been awarded MBEs in the King’s Birthday Honours for their services to darts.
Priestley, however, believes both are yet to achieve enough in the sport to justify such an accolade,
He added: “To be brutally honest, I don’t think either Luke Littler or Luke Humphries have done enough to earn their MBEs just yet.
“I think in time they could’ve done enough to warrant it but it feels very early, they have both won one World Championship each and are still young in their careers.
“Littler has been recognised for raising the popularity of darts which is great, but he can still do so much more. If he is getting an MBE this soon then you’d have to think he is on the right path to a knighthood, nothing would surprise me now.”
Littler issued his response to Priestley’s comments on his Instagram story on Thursday, posting: ‘Don’t deserve an MBE but done more in 12 months than he ever did.. that’s what I would say anyway.’ He later deleted the post.
Both Littler and Humphries are due to return to singles action at the US Darts Masters in New York next Friday.
