- Jubilant crowd at the Brighton Centre enjoy two perfect legs on thrilling night
Luke Humphries and Rob Cross both hit nine-darters on a thrilling night of Premier League darts in Brighton – but were unable to turn their perfection into victory.
World No 1 Humphries pinned the sport’s perfect leg against Cross to send the crowd at the Brighton Centre into a frenzy.
Cross, who went on to beat Humphries in their quarter-final, then achieved the feat himself in his semi-final clash with Nathan Aspinall.
A total of 18 nine-darters have now been hit on the Premier League circuit since its inception. The two on Thursday were the first of this year’s season.
Humphries’ effort came amid technical difficulties for Sky Sports, whose coverage of the event was regularly interrupted by a loss of pictures.
Presenter Emma Paton was forced to apologise, while messages flashed up on screen insisting the broadcaster was ‘working hard to resolve the issues’. On several occasions coverage of the darts disappeared entirely, replaced by adverts of action coming up on the channel.
Rob Cross (left) and Luke Humphries both pinned the sport’s perfect leg in Brighton on Thursday
A jubilant crowd inside the Brighton Centre were treated to a thrilling night of darts
Fortunately for darts fans there were no problems as Humphries hit six 180s, followed by treble 20, treble 19 and double 12, to complete the nine-darter.
‘I really hope you all saw that,’ Paton joked on X.
But the Premier League leader was unable to turn his perfect leg into a victory as he succumbed to a 6-4 defeat by former world champion Cross.
Cross then went on to treat fans to a second nine-darter of the night, sparking wild scenes inside the venue.
His moment of perfection came during his semi-final with Aspinall as he pinned six trebles, before hitting treble 19, treble 16 and double 16.
Cross was embraced by Aspinall as fans in the crowd at the venue threw beer and went wild.
But, like Humphries earlier, Cross was on the losing side as Aspinall won 6-5 to set up a final with Luke Littler, who overcame Michael van Gerwen in his semi-final.
