Lethal Luke Humphries is guarding against burnout as he hungrily hunts the cherished Triple crown.

And the World No.1 has urged budding Premier League Darts hopefuls to follow his patient road to success. Humphries relishes the relentless nature of the PDC scene with worldwide events and a jammed calendar, but Cool Hand does confess it’s tough to have long spells away from home plenty and stresses the importance of managing schedule. He starts his Premier League campaign against Nathan Aspinall looking to join an elite list of stars who have won this event as well as the World Championships and World Matchplay.

Humphries, who lost last year's final to Luke Littler, explained: “It’s one of those majors that you want to win because it’s so prestigious and it’s really, really tough to win. This could arguably be harder than winning any other major because of the fact that you can’t win it in one day. It takes five to six months. So, arguably, it could be the hardest.

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“It would be nice to complete the set, the worlds, the matchplay and the Premier League, Not all in the one calendar year. But it would be nice to have them all together. And for me, this is definitely the biggest one I ain’t got at the moment. There’s not loads of people that have got all three. So, of course, it would be nice to be part of that club.”

Humphries only made his debut in the event a year ago and continued: “If you’re a newbie and not played in it before, it’s tough because you really don’t know what to expect, how to handle things. For me, I think the experience of last year will help me, managing your calendar as best as you physically can.

“I mean, it’s so stacked that you just physically can’t play in everything. It’s kind of impossible, but it’s important that you don’t neglect too much. So I’ll keep myself very busy throughout the year, but I’ll make sure I pick and choose the right tournaments to miss to make sure that I don’t overburn myself out.”

Humphries’ golden run of seven majors and a World Cup win came on the back of being rejected for the Premier League two years ago.

He now reflects on it being the right decision and, although players such as Grand Prix champ Mike De Decker felt worthy of a spot in the 2025 competition, he offered a valuable note of caution to anyone upset at being left out.

Humphries said: “I’d just say don’t let it eat you up too much because certain players have done that. They let it eat them up and then it kind of affects your start of the season. And if your season hasn’t started off well, then it can affect you for the whole of the year. So being in this obviously is a lot of people’s dreams and it’s amazing, but it is really tough.

“The PDC have got a good way of maybe allowing people a bit more extra time because, you know, you win a major and, you know, you think, right, it’s my time now. I’m ready for the Premier League and maybe you’re not.

“Maybe I wasn’t ready for it that year they expelled me from it or didn’t put me in it. They made the right decision because maybe I was too soon. I might have had a really bad year then and never gone on to achieve the things I did. So everything happens for a reason.

“I think there’s a few players obviously disappointed that they didn’t get in. But all I can say, maybe just take a bit of inspiration from what I did, prove them wrong and I think if you win a major, then you go and do it again the next year, then you’re ready because you’re doing it consistently.

“Sometimes when you win one major, it isn’t enough to get yourself in this cauldron, which is quite tough. But there’s a few players that if they can have a good season, they’ll have a great chance of being in next year.

“There is a lot of travelling, a lot of sacrifice. But we’re all very, very lucky to be here, do what we do, get paid incredibly well. So it’s a blessing for us all and we can’t complain. But it is really tough. You sacrifice a lot.

“But I’m really, really, really happy with what I do and I love playing in the Premier League. So, yeah, it’s really, really exciting for this year.”