Luke Humphries beat Brendan Dolan 8-6 in the final to win his third Players Championship title of the season on the second day of action in Leicester. Humphries reclaimed the world No 2 position in the PDC rankings from Gian van Veen during the day. Dolan had defeated Luke Littler 7-4 in their semi-final, denying a blockbuster meeting with Humphries.

Humphries beat Mike De Decker 7-4 in his semi-final, two rounds after surviving six match darts against Danny Noppert to win 6-5. Littler was making just his second Players Championship appearance of the season after a quarter-final defeat to Jermaine Wattimena on Tuesday. Littler aims to make the top 64 on the Order of Merit to qualify for the finals in Minehead in November.

A quarter-final and semi-final appearance in Leicester mean Littler now sits in 125th place in the Order of Merit, £16,750 behind 64th place. Six events remain before the finals. He still needs to win the World Series, World Grand Prix, European Championship, Grand Slam of Darts and Players Championship Finals to achieve a historic clean sweep.

Humphries returned to competitive action this week for the first time since his round-one exit to Cameron Menzies in the World Matchplay. He lost to Cam Crabtree on Tuesday but won all seven matches on Wednesday. He has now won three times this year and sits 13th in the standings, effectively assured of featuring in Minehead.