Luke Humphries has conceded his 2026 World Cup of Darts title won with Luke Littler for England takes on a new level due to the pressure and expectation the duo have felt.
Humphries clinched his maiden World Cup glory in 2024 alongside Michael Smith, but then endured a 2025 World Cup to forget as he and Littler suffered a stunning early exit to Germany at the second-round stage after pairing up for the first time.
In 2026, Humphries and Littler again entered as the two best players in the world, and though they almost suffered defeats to Spain and Wales - going 4-0 behind against the latter in the quarters before an epic turnaround - they really produced top form in the semis and final.
Indeed, the duo averaged almost 105 as a pair and fired in 15 maximums in
"I mean, always the first time you win something, it feels special because I'll never take back from what I achieved that week with Michael Smith. That was a special memory for me," Humphries told Your Site.
"But this one, it's there because there was so much pressure on our shoulders.
"Everyone expects us to win, and that expectation is so hard on your shoulders.
"Every year we have to come here and we do feel it.
"It's just one of those things that it either happens for you or it doesn't. And this year it definitely did.
"We were just discussing there, Adrian Lewis and Phil Taylor won four World Cups, we want to win five.
"Hopefully over the next few years, if I'm lucky enough to partner him [Luke Littler] for many, many years in the future, we'll try and win as many as they did."
Asked about the difficulties in partnering with his main rival in darts to form a team at the World Cup, Humphries snuffed out the notion that should be a reason for any lack of success together.
"To be fair, it's not hard," he said. "We are good friends off the oche, we do get along. But we're just two great darts players that seem to be in a lot of finals together.
"He does win a lot of them, but we do our best and I've won my fair share, he's won his, and we enjoy that rivalry.
"You put those differences aside. We're here to win as a team, we won as a team and I'm really, really proud."
Your Site Darts' Wayne Mardle paid tribute to both teams after the final, and said he believed the four players within the two nations have the potential to set up the best World Cup rivalry seen to date.
"These two, as in Luke Humphries and Luke Littler, and Gian van Veen and Michael van Gerwen, they could set up the ultimate rivalry in the World Cup.
"A bit like Adrian Lewis and Phil Taylor vs Michael van Gerwen and Raymond van Barneveld. It could be so similar to that.
"We live in a world of Luke Littler and Luke Humphries where they hit the ground running and keep winning, so we think everyone else should do it. It doesn't really work that way.
"But if Van Veen has Van Gerwen in his corner, and they do play the World Cup next year and the year after, we could have that rivalry.
"I just believe Van Veen's going to get better and better, I really do. There's a lot to love about his game. There was a spell in the semi-finals where he was finding it so regularly.
"He's another one for me that, once he starts winning title after title, it will be: 'Why did he take so long to get there?'"
More from Humphries to Your Site:
"Michael van Gerwen was unbelievable today. He's back and he's playing unbelievable darts.
"We knew we had to take those chances. If you give this Dutch team a little bit of hope, they'll take it away from you.
"We played in that game how I think everyone expected us to play in every game.
"We were maybe a bit fortunate against Wales, but we ran with the luck that we got in that game and showed how well we could play as a team.
"We had a lot of doubters. People who didn't think we could play well as a team, and could only do solo, so I'm proud of us together.
"We worked hard and we won together."
Michael van Gerwen to Your Site:
"There's definitely positives. We did okay but I think we can do a lot better than this.
"But the English guys played an absolutely phenomenal final. When they had to do well, they produced fantastic darts.
"During their route they got a bit lucky against Clayton and Kenny [Wales], and you could see how much confidence that gave them.
"And you don't want to give these two guys confidence. No 1 and No 2 in the world, they are doing great lately."
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