Luke Littler v Luke Humphries: PDC world darts final 2024 – live

So, whose destiny is it anyway? Luke Littler and Luke Humphries are both meant to become world champion at Alexandra Palace tonight. Alas, societal convention dictates that only one of them can join the pantheon.

A win for Littler, [insert age], would conclude the greatest story in darts history, a mindblowing fairytale that seemed impossible until a few days ago. Victory for Humphries, who almost quit the sport six years ago because of an anxiety disorder, would complete a classic and inspirational character arc.

It’s pretty hard to split them. Humphries wins decisively on surname Scrabble points, but everything else is close. Humphries has been the best player in the world for the past few months; Littler has been the best for the last couple of weeks. During the World Championship that have both hit fifty 180s. Littler’s average is slightly higher, 101.82 to Humphries’ 99.33, and he has had a smoother route to the final. But Humphries, who dodged several arrows against Ricardo Pietreczko and Joe Cullen, has looked almost unbeatable in the last two rounds. Almost.

Last night, in the afterglow of Littler’s astonishing dismissal of Rob Cross, Humphries whitewashed Scott Williams with the highest average of the tournament so far: 108.74. In doing so he become the world No1 for the first time in his career.

Everything points to it being a classic. Everything except the past. The variables that make darts uniquely fascinating – rhythm, momentum, doubles – can also lead to an unwelcome anti-climax. The last truly great PDC final was probably Phil Taylor v Gary Anderson nine years ago. Since then there have been at least two finals that looked certain to be epics: Anderson v Michael van Gerwen in 2017 and Van Gerwen v Michael Smith a year ago. Both started brilliantly but were ultimately one-sided.

We need games like that for the true classics to count. What we can say is that if both play as they did last night, it’ll be a rare old barnburner.

The first dart in this best-of-13-sets match should be thrown just after 8.15pm. The force is strong in these two. May the best Luke win.

Come on, we can’t exactly say ‘may the best man win’. He’s 16!