Mark Webster reveals the one player who 'Gets to Luke Littler' ahead of the Winmau World Masters final

EXCLUSIVE: Mark Webster believes one player is capable of beating Luke Littler in the Winmau World Masters.

The competition has generated a huge buzz around Milton Keynes, with thousands of fans walking through the doors of the Marshall Arena, excited to watch the best competitors on the planet go to war on the brand-new Blade X board.

Mark Webster says Luke Humphries gets to Luke Littler

In a matter of hours, the Winmau World Masters winner will be decided, with Luke Humphries and Luke Littler battling it out against Gian van Veen and Gerwyn Price, respectively, with a win for each man setting up a final between the best two players in the sport.

And if anyone is capable of beating ‘The Nuke’, according to Mark Webster, ‘Cool Hand’ can.

In an exclusive interview with Sporf, the popular commentator explained: “I always think Luke Humphries gets to him. I think Humphries is in with a shot every time he plays him. Yes, the Grand Prix final last year seemed quite one-sided, but a lot of those sets went to a deciding leg, and he pushed him in the Grand Slam, but he just ran out of steam. I do think a Luke Humphries on point just suits the style of these two players, and I think he’s the one who can get to him. But Gian van Veen is really improving, and he’ll want to be challenging Littler on a regular basis.”

Mark Webster says the Blade X board will change darts for the better

On Friday night, the Blade X made its official debut, with the players joyfully setting foot on the oche, eager to test out their skills on the new board.

Webster is a massive fan of what Winmau has done, with the Welshman adamant that the company’s creation will have a very positive impact on the sport.

The 42-year-old explained: “It’s a really exciting era. In darts, when you get a new board, there’s always a buzz. But this one is really slick. Winmau put a lot into making this board. I churn this line out all the time, but if a dart board isn’t spoken about during a game, it’s done its job — I think that’s the aim of this board. You don’t want the game to be dictated by instances on the board. The players are playing for big money, so they’re playing on a high-quality board, and that’s the way it should be. It’s been a big launch for the board, and it’s exciting times.

“The wiring system, you can barely notice it, you’re not going to get bounce outs now. You don’t want a big final decided by the clip of a wire; you want it decided on the players’ ability—that’s what this board will do. The promotion has been brilliant. It’s the launch of a new era. It was the perfect time to launch the board.”

Tom Brown is extremely excited for the launch of the Blade X board

Tom Brown, CEO of Nodor Group (the parent company of Winmau), is overjoyed to have helped deliver a board that the best of the best will throw their arrows at for a very long time to come.

In an exclusive interview, he told Sporf: “This is the most premium-advanced board that has ever been launched. It’s very exciting. This board spent many years in development. It comes with a new, deeper sisal fibre, so it’s much more durable. The quality is there, the reliability is there—that’s why the PDC wanted it as its board for all of its tournaments going forward.

“That deeper sisal fibre, 5.5 million fibres in every board — we’ve got that consistency on every board. The trends have turned in terms of how people play, so take Gian van Veen, one of our players, he plays with 50 mill points, so now when people play, the dart goes further into the board, so it’s really important that we have that reliability. The longer sisal fibres mean that the darts can go in and not damage the board. That’s why we put a five-year warranty on it, which is another world first.”