The World Darts Championship trophy wasn’t the only prize Luke Humphries picked up at Alexandra Palace on Wednesday night.
The 28-year-old, who slew 16-year-old prodigy Luke Littler in the final, also took home the Ballon d’Art trophy, awarded to the player who threw the most 180s during the tournament. Humphries amassed 73, 10 more than runner-up Littler.
The one-off prize raised money for charity, with every 180 during the tournament adding £1,000 to a prize pot which betting company Paddy Power then donated to Prostate Cancer UK. The tournament finished with 914 maximums, and Paddy Power topped up the final donation to £1m.
However, that didn’t stop social media users poking fun. The giant trophy was the size of a small child, with three enormous golden darts embedded in a wooden block, and if the garish look wasn’t enough, the name ‘Ballon d’Or’ is a play on football’s Ballon d’Or which makes little sense when translated into French.
“By hitting the most 180s in the tournament, Luke Humphries has also won the ‘Ballon d’art’,” tweeted sports journalist Sanny Rudravajhala. “Not quite how the French would translate it.”
“Huh,” tweeted another user. “Should be Golden Dart surely, not Ball of Art?!”
“Play on Ballon d’Or isn’t it,” wrote another. “Except it doesn’t work…”
“That’s not a real trophy surely,” added another on X.
Given Paddy Power’s penchant for garnering attention, perhaps this was a case of mission accomplished. And while Humphries might struggle to find room on the mantlepiece for the trophy, he can be proud to have contributed so much to the £1m donation to charity.
He also pledged to donate some of his own £500,000 winnings to the fight against the disease.
“My father-in-law has battled prostate cancer, he went and got it checked out early, so this is a close thing to my heart,” he said. “I will be dedicating that one to him. For me to have added £73,000 is just fantastic. It is very, very close to my heart and as a collective the players have added quite a lot of money, I won’t say the figure, but I am going to donate a bit from my prize money as well.”
The money raised will fund lifesaving research to diagnose men sooner and improve the lives of men affected by the most common cancer in men, with one in eight suffering.
