Sky Sports Darts’ Wayne Mardle believes the domination of Luke Humphries and Luke Littler will not slow down any time soon and has called for their rivals to “step up” and challenge them.

​​​​​​The Premier League Finals Night at London’s O2 saw the 23rd match-up between the pair, Littler booking his spot in the final with a 10-7 semi-final with over Gerwyn Price and Humphries coming through a 10-7 battle with Nathan Aspinall.

The stats were 13-9 in Littler’s favour before the final but Humphries changed that to 13-10 with an 11-8 victory to claim his first Premier League title and his eighth major crown overall.

Finals Night once again demonstrated that the world No 1 and No 2 are staying at the top of the darts rankings for the foreseeable future.

The win also completed Humphries’ darting ‘Triple Crown’, having won the World Championship, World Match Play and the Premier League.

The next task will be for Humphries and Littler to join together for England’s trophy defence at the World Cup of Darts.

Following that, they will continue to spend their time competing for darts’ top prizes, the last two World Championship and Premier League wins being shared between the pair.

For Sky Sports Darts’ Wayne Mardle, their dominance could continue for over 10 years and it is up to other players to “step up” to their level.

“The Lukes are going to be the mainstay of the darting world. People are going to have to play really well to get the better of these two,” Mardle said.

“If they have that hunger for four, five, 10 years then someone is going to have to step up. Maybe we don’t know the next champion.”

Humphries: I want to join the darting greats | I am three titles from top three!

Humphries has just added another record to his tally but is already targeting the next, admitting he is focused on getting into double figures for major wins to join the darting greats.

There are just three darts players with more major wins than him – Phil Taylor (87), Michael van Gerwen (47) and James Wade (10), with the likes of Gary Anderson (8) and Peter Wright (8) alongside him on the same total.

With his first major win coming back in 2023, he knows he has it in him to join the top of the pile.

“I have still got the UK Open and European Championships to go and the World Series finals to complete the whole collection, but like I said, if I don’t achieve that then I have got the top three,” he said.

“There’s only four people that’s done it, so that makes it really, really special.

“That was just another final in the Luke and Luke saga.

“I am still relatively young in the game and I am a couple of titles away from being possibly the third most successful darts player.

“When you win 10 major titles, that is some unseen territory. So, I’ll keep pushing, keep working hard to make sure that I can.

“I want to get over the 10. So, I hope I can do that in the next couple of years. Don’t forget my first major title was only 21 months ago.”

What’s next in darts?

Nathan Aspinall will head to Leverkusen in Germany for the European Darts Open, which runs from Friday to Sunday.

Luke Littler, Luke Humphries and Gerwyn Price are due back in action at the Nordic Darts Masters in Copenhagen from June 6-7, with Price the defending champion after beating Rob Cross 8-5 in the 2024 final.

The next live darts on Sky Sports is the World Cup of Darts from June 12-15 in Frankfurt as Humphries and Littler look to win the title for reigning champions England and Wales’ Price and Jonny Clayton aim to secure their second trophy at the event in three years.

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