World number one Luke Humphries scraped into November’s Players Championship Finals as reigning world champion Luke Littler criticised tournament officials.
Humphries, 30, began the day 58th in the competition’s rankings and could have missed the finals if he had lost in the opening round of the Players Championship 34 event.
However, he gained a 6-2 victory over Dutchman Martijn Dragt in round one to qualify before losing 6-4 to Rob Owen in the second round at Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan.
This was the last of 34 Players Championship events held across the year. The 64 best-performing players will now advance to the finals in Minehead, Somerset from 21-23 November.
Littler, 18, only secured his place earlier this month when he won Players Championship 32.
But he did not play in Wednesday’s Players Championship 33 as he was stuck in traffic following a serious incident and missed the 11:00 GMT deadline to register.
It later emerged someone had died in an incident on the M6.
Afterwards, Littler posted on Instagram: “Missed registration today for the pro tour, but someone sadly lost their life. Thinking of everyone.”
He reached the last 32 on Thursday before losing 6-5 in a deciding leg against Canada’s Matt Campbell – and then criticised officials in a post on social media, claiming other players had been allowed to play when arriving late for events.
In an Instagram post, which was later deleted, Littler wrote: “Not the best day today but played some decent stuff.
“But really glad to hear from a few of the other players that people have been let in almost half an hour late for a pro tour but I can’t be two minutes late.
“Says a lot, one rule for one and one for another.”
Dutchman Wessel Nijman beat England’s Luke Woodhouse 8-5 to win the Players Championship 34 title.
Three-time world champion and current world number three Michael van Gerwen will not feature at the finals as he was outside the top 64 in the rankings and did not play the last two events.
