Luke Humphries paid the ultimate compliment to Beau Greaves after the world No. 1 was taken all the way by his female equivalent. ‘Cool Hand’ needed to show all of his composure to pull off a comeback victory after seeing off Greaves 10-7, winning five legs in a row to seal his place in the next stage in Minehead. As the two players embraced on the stage to huge cheers from the entertained crowd, Humphries and Greaves hugged for a short while before the latter made her way towards the backstage.
However, Humphries called her back and held her arms aloft, calling for the crowd to give her a memorable encore as they clapped her off the stage. The classy gesture was typical of Humphries, who is a popular player on the PDC Tour, and it showed just how seriously he took the clash after surviving an early scare. It was far from plain sailing for the 29-year-old, who looked to be on the brink of a historic defeat when Greaves led 7-5 at one stage after he twice failed to clinch the leg with totals of 74 and eight left to get on the board.
Greaves had displayed no signs of nerves as she led the first 13 legs against the former world champion. But her inexperience at the top level was evident when she failed to make it count with a 71 checkout available, and Humphries took full advantage to land his dart on the double-eight. Humphries didn’t look back from there and took the next five legs before sealing the win.
It marked the end of a storming run from Greaves, 21, who took her talents into the men’s game after dominating the Women’s Series where she is ranked the best in the world.
She began to take some unexpected victims at the UK Open, a PDC event, when she won three matches on Friday to clinch her place in the Second Stage. She beat Stefan Bellmont 6-1, Rhys Griffin 6-1 and Micky Mansell 6-2 to set up a mouthwatering clash against Humphries.
In another heartwarming moment, Humphries and Greaves took the unusual step of holding a joint interview after their thrilling encounter and the top PDC seed lavished praise on his opponent.
“I really enjoyed it, that’s what I said to her afterwards. I really, really enjoyed it,” Humphries told ITV Sport. “It was great fun, she was amazing. She played so great. I think she dropped off in the end, that’s what she said. But the long format she’s probably not used to playing. She’s a fantastic player there and she really had to bring the best of me.”
Greaves said: “It’s a learning curve – I’m not used to the longer formats and my game dropped off towards the end, but it was an amazing experience. I’m used to watching these players all the time on telly and it was just great to be there on stage with him and to give a good account of myself.”
