High seed Luke Humphries beat Nathan Aspinall to e book his place within the knockout phases of the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton.

England’s Humphries averaged 102.62 in an outstanding show as he maintained his 100% file to high Group A.

Michael Smith, who beat American Alex Spellman 5-2, went via in second place.

It means an early exit for Aspinall, who can take into account himself unlucky to have come up towards Humphries – who hit a nine-darter on Sunday – in this type of kind, given his 100.01 common and 5 180s would possibly typically have been sufficient to win towards a distinct opponent.

Former world champion Humphries will now face Jurjen van der Velde of the Netherlands in spherical two, which begins on Wednesday.

Chris Dobey will face 2023 world champion and fellow Englishman Smith within the subsequent spherical after clinching first place in Group B with a 5-1 win over Martin Lukeman, regardless of averaging solely 81.

Wales’ Gerwyn Worth can be safely via after a 5-1 victory over Switzerland’s Stefan Bellmont that sees him win Group D following Ricky Evans’ 5-2 loss to fellow Englishman James Wade.

In the meantime, already-eliminated Stephen Bunting suffered a 3rd final-leg defeat on the spin as he misplaced 5-4 to Group C winner Luke Woodhouse.

Germany’s Martin Schindler is thru after beating Alexis Toylo of the Philippines 5-2.

The ultimate group video games within the backside half of the draw will happen on Tuesday with world champion Luke Littler having already certified for the second spherical.