Peter Wright’s mind games worked perfectly as he out-psyched Luke Humphries to dethrone the world champion in frenetic fashion.
Snakebite, 54, defied the 25-year age gap and produced a masterclass of finishing to win 4-1 in the fourth round of the PDC World Darts Championship and back up his pre-game trash talk.
Humphries, 29, dramatically bombed out of the competition, almost 12 months after he ruled the world for the first time.
The world No. 1 will not defend the Sid Waddell Trophy – Gary Anderson 2016 was the last man to achieve that feat – after suffering his first defeat in nine successive games on the Ally Pally stage.
It spectacularly opens up the top half of the draw and means 17-year-old Luke Littler has an excellent chance to become the youngest world champion in history.
Two-time world champion Wright went from his sick bed to the doubles bed and took out exactly 70 percent of his doubles in the shock result of the 2024/25 tournament.
The Scotsman, 54, riled the defending world champ pre-game by predicting Raymond van Barneveld would KO him in round three.
That never happened, as the Dutchman lost early, but Wright had predicted that he and Barney would then have “the best game you’ve ever seen on the stage”.
In response, the Berkshire thrower told his trash-talking foe there would be “an egg on his face” if he did not “smash me”.
And in a proper verbal barb, he warned: “I’m one world title away from matching his career and I’m 25 years younger!”
It added spice and intrigue to this clash and though they are actually good mates, there was only a cursory fist-bump at the start.
Snakebite, 54, defied the 25-year age gap and produced a masterclass of finishing to win 4-1 in the fourth round of the PDC World Darts Championship and back up his pre-game trash talk.
Humphries, 29, dramatically bombed out of the competition, almost 12 months after he ruled the world for the first time.
The world No. 1 will not defend the Sid Waddell Trophy – Gary Anderson 2016 was the last man to achieve that feat – after suffering his first defeat in nine successive games on the Ally Pally stage.
It spectacularly opens up the top half of the draw and means 17-year-old Luke Littler has an excellent chance to become the youngest world champion in history.
Two-time world champion Wright went from his sick bed to the doubles bed and took out exactly 70 percent of his doubles in the shock result of the 2024/25 tournament.
The Scotsman, 54, riled the defending world champ pre-game by predicting Raymond van Barneveld would KO him in round three.
That never happened, as the Dutchman lost early, but Wright had predicted that he and Barney would then have “the best game you’ve ever seen on the stage”.
In response, the Berkshire thrower told his trash-talking foe there would be “an egg on his face” if he did not “smash me”.
And in a proper verbal barb, he warned: “I’m one world title away from matching his career and I’m 25 years younger!”
It added spice and intrigue to this clash and though they are actually good mates, there was only a cursory fist-bump at the start.
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