Luke Humphries eases past Paul Lim to make third round of World Darts Championship

Good evening and welcome to Telegraph Sport’s live, leg-by-leg coverage of Luke Humphries versus Paul Lim in the 2026 PDC World Darts Championship second round.

This pair have previous: Lim beat Humphries in the opening round five years ago, an upset which gave the younger man a kick up the proverbial.

“I’m thankful to Paul for beating me back then because it completely changed me as a player and as a person,” Humphries said last week.

“About three months later, I lost nearly four stone, so in a strange way it helped transform my career.”

Since then, the new, slimmer Humphries has gone on to become world No1 and won eight PDC majors, most recently triumphing at the Premier League, beating Luke Littler in the final.

The No2 seed and 2024 champion is the big favourite tonight, possessing the pedigree and scoring power to blow his opponent away, but Lim’s longevity and experience is peerless.

He made his World Championship debut way back in 1982. Eight years later, the Singaporean became the first player to hit a nine-dart finish in the sport’s biggest event, winning £52,000. During his long career, he has even featured in a Yakuza video game. A grandfatherly figure to many fans of the sport, underdog Lim will likely have the crowd on his side tonight.

The 71-year-old is showing that age is no barrier: eight days ago, he became the oldest player to win a match here with his first round triumph over Jeffrey de Graaf.

Tonight, the first player to three sets wins and goes through to face Gabriel Clemens in the third round.

But first up, we have Nathan Aspinall up against Leonard Gates. Strangely enough, the duo faced each other in the second round 12 months ago too, with Aspinall winning 3-1.