Darts in Munich: cool hand at the darts party – sport
At 10:41 p.m. Luke Humphries had to break with his nickname for a brief moment: “Cool Hand” converted his match dart, turned to the around 3000 fans and after a short kneel let out a cheering cry including winner’s fists, as one would expect from the reserved Englishman rarely hears. The tournament victory of the German Darts Grand Prix in Munich was his on the European Tour, a first unexpected one as well.
The darts party started on Saturday afternoon, before the Kulturhalle Zenith was heated up for the first time in the evening when three Germans, Max Hopp, Lukas Wenig and Martin Schindler, were at the start. While Lukas Little from Kitzingen was unable to take advantage of his chances, Hopp and Schindler won their opening games, the latter already paying homage to the home crowd after the game: “You have to say, witches’ cauldron”. Schindler later smashed the German record on the European Tour in the round of 16 with an outstanding 109.24 points on average for every three darts thrown.
The fact that his defeat in the quarter-finals was the last German elimination did not spoil the mood. Although the tournament is expected to be a real surprise, in which top players Gerwyn Price, who both had to cancel at short notice due to tonsillitis, and Peter Wright, who already lost his opening match, died, the level did not suffer as a result.
The vacant Martin Lukeman becomes a favorite in Munich
This is how the unseeded Martin Lukeman, who is ranked 74th in the money list, treats himself as a crowd favorite from game to game, although he eliminated the two best Germans in Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler over the course of the tournament. The 37-year-old Englishman showed why the underdogs are often the celebrated in darts, surprised with his performances on the darts board – and on the final day with the bare stomach after running in.
That impressed the colorful audience, who carried Lukeman chanting his name to the final, where he defeated three-time World Cup quarter-finalist Luke Humphries, 27, 8-2 in a game marked by mistakes on the final doubles had to give.
Humphries, who took the former money leader Michael van Gerwen out of the tournament in a dominant manner 7-0 in the semi-finals and thus caused the Dutchman’s first defeat ever in Munich, continued to heart Lukeman on stage long after the end of the tournament. Both could live with the result: while Humphries was able to celebrate his first tournament victory in front of TV cameras, Lukeman played as a finalist with 10,000 pounds, the highest prize money of his career so far.
In the interview with the winner, Humphries said he would be very happy to come back to Munich next Easter. But he left the last word of the tournament to the fans: They not only sang about the finalists with “Oh, how is that beautiful”, but also themselves. At least the Easter Monday holiday lived up to its name.