Darts star Stephen Bunting showed his class on Tuesday night by heaping praise on Luke Humphries following their World Matchplay clash.
In a hard-fought battle, Humphries ultimately came out on top to reach the quarter-finals with an 11-7 success.
The world champion went a break of throw down twice but immediately responded on both occasions to book his spot in the final eight, ending with an average of 102.34 on the night.
Bunting will certainly feel that he could have capitalised on some of his opponent’s errors more clinically following his exit, but the 39-year-old was keen to praise Humphries rather than grumble after his defeat.
Following his victory, Humphries tweeted: “What a battle that was! Stephen pushed me hard tonight, so I’m really happy to get through. The crowd were amazing as always. On to the quarter finals.”
The post then prompted a classy response from Bunting, who replied: “Thanks so much mate. Class as always, on and off the oche.
“I gave it my all but wasn’t good enough in the end. You’re a class act mate and number one in the world and current world champ for a reason. Pleasure to play on the big stages against you.
“Crowd was great, great support and I promise I’ll be back and we will go #buntingmental again. Good luck @lukeh180 for the rest of the matchplay. See you all soon. Love bullet x.”
Humphries replied again to say: “Always great playing you mate as I said on stage! another great game. Have a good couple of weeks off and I will see you soon!”
A clash with Belgian star Dimitri Van Den Bergh now awaits Humphries in the quarter-finals. The 30-year-old cruised through his bout with Jonny Clayton in the Round of 16, though Nathan Aspinall and Gerwyn Price did not enjoy their evenings in Blackpool.
Fourth seed Price threw away an 8-6 lead to lose 11-9 to Ross Smith in their second-round match. James Wade was victorious over Aspinall in their Round of 16 clash, capitalising on his opponent’s lack of consistency to battle to an 11-8 success.
Luke Littler was eliminated from the competition in the first round of World Matchplay. He was beaten by Michael van Gerwen on a night to forget for the talented teenager, who had aspirations of going all the way in Blackpool and adding another accolade to his collection.
