Luke Littler suffered a first-round defeat on night eight of the darts Premier League in Dublin on Thursday as Luke Humphries stormed to another victory.
The 17-year-old went into the night third in the Premier League table with hopes of solidifying his spot in the top four and the play-off spots with ten games left to play.
The nature of the night saw the fixtures decided by the state of the table, with Littler taking on Michael Smith, who was sixth in the table after a difficult run on the back of winning the first night in Cardiff.
Littler missed the bullseye to take out 164 in the first leg against the throw, and he hit six perfect darts in the third leg in his bid to hit his latest nine-darter. He did, however, break Smith’s throw to take advantage in the tie.
Smith however broke back with a 122 checkout, and got the game back on throw, with both players holding until the former world champion secured the win by six legs to four.
Luke Littler (pictured) lost to Michael Smith in the first round of Premier League night eight
He lost to Michael Smith, who closed the gap to the teenager in the league table on Thursday
League leader and world No 1 Luke Humphries stormed to another victory – his third in a row
Booed by the Irish crowd, world No 1 and league leader Humphries made light work of bottom-of-the-league Peter Wright, who has just one point from his eight weeks so far, in the first game of the night.
Nathan Aspinall and Rob Cross then continued their mini-rivalry as their quarter-final game went to a last-leg decider, with Aspinall on hand to extend his lead over his fellow Brit after taking out double one.
Gerwyn Price then looked back to his best as he picked up his own last-leg win over defending champion Michael van Gerwen, whose poor form continued with his fourth quarter-final loss in a row.
Aspinall then did his best to defeat Humphries but the league leader again prospered, averaging nearly 105 in a 6-4 win.
Littler is now clinging onto a play-off spot and will face Humphries in the quarter-finals next week
He was up against Smith in the final, who edged out Price in the semi-finals, in the final, and raced into a 4-0 lead.
Smith eventually won a leg, but Humphries once again proved he is in a league of his own and romped to a 6-2 win to extend his lead at the top of the table to seven points.
Littler will face Humphries in the quarter-final next week in Belfast.
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