Luke Humphries has cheeky quip over ‘aura’ row with influencer

Luke Humphries silenced critics by clinching the Belgian Darts Open title, joking he was only ‘here to work some aura points’.

The World No.2 claimed his ninth European Tour crown with a battling 8-6 victory over Jonny Clayton in Wieze.

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Not only did Humphries land a cool £35,000 in prize money, he also claimed his first silverware on the European stage since September.

‘Cool Hand’ put together a string of impressive performances to set up his showdown with Clayton, beating Jermaine Wattimena, Chris Dobey and Michael van Gerwen on his way to the final.

After racing into a 6-1 lead, Humphries faced a spirited Clayton fightback to bring it back to 7-6, but regained composure to deny him a last-leg decider..

And the 31-year-old had some pointed words for his critics once he got his hands on the trophy.

Before the tournament, darts influencer Charlie Murphy had claimed Humphries appeared to be lacking confidence and ‘aura’.

Murphy told OLBG: “He’s never been full of aura, but he doesn’t seem to have the stage aura or confidence that he used to have when he was winning.”

Aura farming

Humphries made sure to remind Murphy of his recent comments in his post-match interview after victory in Belgium.

The 2024 world champion joked: “Honestly I was just up here to work some aura points. That’s all I was here for.”

On the game itself, he added: “It’s one of those things where I feel like my game has been there and then it has not. My scoring is good and doubles are not, and  I put myself under pressure. 

“Usually in those circumstances I close the game out a lot better, but when you’re not winning as much they become a lot harder and you feel the nerves. 

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“Jonny is one of the most underrated darts players in the world. He’s just always there. 

“You can’t shake him off and he’s got the perfect nickname [the Ferret], because he’s just there and he won’t leave. It’s credit to him for coming back.

“It’s nice to get that winning feeling again. A nice big trophy on the big stage.”

Humphries hits back at ‘second-best’ claim

But Humphries wasn’t done with hitting back at Murphy, as he then took aim at him for another claim of his.

In the same interview, the content creator had suggested that Humphries is not currently the second-best player in the world, behind Luke Littler.

Refusing to let this slide, the 25-time PDC title winner went on to say: “I’m just going to try and keep pushing. 

“Keep working hard, keep my aura levels up because I have to keep trying to be the second best player in the world, apparently!”

While Humphries took aim at question marks over his world ranking, the only player ranked higher than him suffered a shock early exit in Belgium.

World No.1 Littler was knocked out in the third round by Niels Zonneveld, who fought back from 3-1 down to win 6-5.

It marked a surprise loss for ‘The Nuke’, who was on a streak of 12 matches unbeaten in the tournament and was bidding for a hat-trick of victories in Wieze, after back-to-back victories in 2024 and 2025.

But Littler fell to his first defeat in a ranking event since last October at the hands of world number 39 Zonneveld.