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World Matchplay Darts: Luke Humphries starts with emphatic win

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World champion Luke Humphries raced through to round two of the World Matchplay in Blackpool with a comfortable win over German Ricardo Pietreczko.

Humphries made an early statement at the Winter Gardens with a 10-4 victory against the world number 33.

England’s Humphries started quickly by winning the first four legs and never looked back as he averaged a remarkable 108.76.

“The week building up to this, it felt really good but it doesn’t always happen on the stage when you feel good,” Humphries said.

“Tonight it was absolutely fantastic. I felt a million dollars.”

Humphries is appearing at the World Matchplay for the fourth time after a career-best run to the semi-finals in 2023.

He beat Luke Littler to win the World Championship in January and is bidding to become just the fourth player to also scoop the World Matchplay in the same year following Michael van Gerwen, Phil Taylor and Peter Wright.

“It would be lovely [to win both in the same year] but you can’t get carried away. It’s only the first round. I’ve got another four games to go,” said Humphries

“Hopefully, you’ll see me in the final but I need to work to get there.”

Defending champion Nathan Aspinall was made to work for his spot in the second round by fellow Englishman Luke Woodhouse.

World number five Aspinall threw away a two-leg lead and was pegged back at 8-8, before going on to win 10-8.

Earlier in the night on the first day of the World Matchplay, Wales’ Gerwyn Price beat Northern Ireland’s Daryl Gurney 10-4.

Jonny Clayton, another Welshman, also booked his spot in the second round with a 10-7 victory over Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld.



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Karl Darlow: Leeds United goalkeeper eyes World Cup after making Wales debut at 33

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“It’s a special moment for them,” Darlow said. “My nan was made up to be back in Cardiff and enjoyed the game.

“I know everything about my grandad’s career and it’s something for the family and myself to be proud of. I hope I did the country proud wearing that shirt and will do in the future.”

Leek, a forward, did not play at the 1958 World Cup, but went on to win 13 caps in the 1960s, scoring five goals.

He played club football for the likes of Northampton Town – where Darlow was born – Leicester City, Newcastle United, Birmingham City and Bradford City.

Darlow has also played for Newcastle, as well as Nottingham Forest, Newport County, Walsall, Hull City and Leeds, who he joined in 2023.

He says a desire to play regularly at club level influenced his decision to turn down Wales, before Bellamy came calling having been appointed head coach in July.

“At different times in my career I’ve had probably different commitments in terms of getting to play games,” Darlow said.

“There have been certain points in my career when I didn’t feel it was right for me to come. I feel now I’m so motivated and determined to help this Welsh squad qualify for the World Cup.

“I had a fantastic Zoom meeting with the manager. Everything he said ticked all my boxes and he was pleased with how I came across as well. It’s a new era and the main goal for me and the squad is to get to the World Cup.”

Having sat on the bench in the Nations League opener against Turkey, Darlow was picked ahead of Danny Ward in Montenegro as Bellamy made five changes to his starting side.



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Jack Draper: Great Britain yet to make decision over his 2024 Davis Cup involvement

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The British team, without Andy Murray for the first time since his recent retirement, has a different feel for the Davis Cup Finals group stage event.

Dan Evans and Neal Skupski, who memorably teamed up to secure a “bonkers” doubles victory which put Britain through to the eight-team knockout stage in Manchester last year, remain in the squad alongside Draper and provide experience.

But Billy Harris – a late bloomer who has just moved to a career-high 101st in the world aged 29 – and 28-year-old Wimbledon doubles champion Henry Patten could be handed debuts.

British number two Cameron Norrie is missing through the arm injury which ruled him out of the recent US Open.

Smith praised Draper’s commitment to playing for his nation despite the short turnaround from his exploits in New York.

Draper had strapping applied to his right thigh before hitting with British number 10 Charles Broom for about an hour in Manchester.

“He is really excited to come here but we have to get him on the practice court, see how he’s doing, assess him,” added Smith, speaking on Tuesday before Draper linked up with the squad.

“Ultimately I’ll make the call on that. I have to select the team to do what is best, not just for tomorrow, but also we have really important matches at the weekend as well.

“We just have to weigh up risk versus reward a little bit.

“We have four guys here who are more than capable of going out tomorrow if that’s required and doing a really good job.”

Smith’s squad face Finland, Argentina and Canada in the round-robin event at Manchester’s AO Arena.

The top two teams progress to the eight-nation finals which will be held in Malaga between 19-24 November.



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England drop Dan Lawrence and call up Brydon Carse and Jordan Cox

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Jack Leach, who lost his place to Somerset team-mate Shoaib Bashir as England’s first-choice spinner, is in the squad, alongside leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed. Left-armer Tom Hartley misses out despite playing all five Tests on the tour of India earlier this year.

In all, there are six frontline seamers chosen, including 20-year-old left-armer Josh Hull following his debut against Sri Lanka in the third Test at The Oval.

Chris Woakes will go on his first England Test tour since Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum took charge of England in 2022, alongside Gus Atkinson, Olly Stone, Matthew Potts, Carse and Hull.

Mark Wood is not included, having been ruled out for the rest of the year with an elbow injury.

The inflated number of seamers could be down to fitness doubts over Stokes and Atkinson, the latter struggling with a thigh problem.

There is also confusion over the venues, which were due to be Karachi, Rawalpindi and Multan.

However, building work in Karachi is likely to leave that stadium unavailable, and a new schedule is due to be announced this week.

There has been speculation that part of the series could be shifted to the United Arab Emirates, but it is now thought the entire series will take place in Pakistan, possibly with two Tests in Rawalpindi.

Pakistan played both Tests of their 2-0 defeat by Bangladesh in Rawalpindi and did not pick a specialist spinner for the first Test, opting for four seamers.

England won 3-0 on their last visit to Pakistan in 2022, the first time a visiting team had recorded a 3-0 clean sweep in the country.

England squad for Test series against Pakistan: Ben Stokes (capt), Rehan Ahmed, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook, Bryson Carse, Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Josh Hull, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes.



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