Grand Slam of Darts: Luke Humphries eliminates Nathan Aspinall to progress

Top seed Luke Humphries beat Nathan Aspinall to book his place in the knockout stages of the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton.

England’s Humphries averaged 102.62 in a superb display as he maintained his 100% record to top Group A.

Michael Smith, who beat American Alex Spellman 5-2, went through in second place.

It means an early exit for Aspinall, who can consider himself unfortunate to have come up against Humphries – who hit a nine-darter on Sunday – in this kind of form, given his 100.01 average and five 180s might often have been enough to win against a different opponent.

Former world champion Humphries will now face Jurjen van der Velde of the Netherlands in round two, which begins on Wednesday.

Chris Dobey will face 2023 world champion and fellow Englishman Smith in the next round after clinching first place in Group B with a 5-1 win over Martin Lukeman, despite averaging only 81.

Wales’ Gerwyn Price is also safely through after a 5-1 victory over Switzerland’s Stefan Bellmont that sees him win Group D following Ricky Evans’ 5-2 loss to fellow Englishman James Wade.

Meanwhile, already-eliminated Stephen Bunting suffered a third final-leg defeat on the spin as he lost 5-4 to Group C winner Luke Woodhouse.

Germany’s Martin Schindler is through after beating Alexis Toylo of the Philippines 5-2.

The final group games in the bottom half of the draw will take place on Tuesday with world champion Luke Littler having already qualified for the second round.