Luke Humphries returned to the top of the Unicorn Development Tour Order of Merit after winning his fifth title on the tour in Barnsley on Sunday.
Berkshire’s Humphries overcame his Red Dragon Darts stablemate Ryan Meikle 5-1 in the Event 16 final as he followed up an earlier quarter-final in Event 15 by taking the £2,000 top prize.
Humphries lost just four legs in his opening four matches as he defeated Shane Reidy, Dylan Powell, Josh Payne and Thomas King, before seeing off Dan Read 5-2 in the quarter-finals and Dimitri van den Bergh 5-3 in the last four.
Suffolk’s Meikle was aiming to win his second Development Tour title of the year, having previously won Event Three back in February.
The left-hander enjoyed wins over Jack Seymour, Tom Lonsdale, Joshua Church, Craig Reeves, Kevin De Vries, Harry Ward and Steve Lennon as he reached the final, only to be denied by Humphries.
The victory for Humphries has propelled him back up to top spot in the Development Tour Order of Merit on £10,100, with van den Bergh close behind on £9,800, and then Adam Hunt back in third on £8,000.
The final Development Tour weekend will be held on November 4-5 at the Robin Park Tennis Centre in Wigan, and will be followed on November 6 by the early rounds of the Unicorn World Youth Championship.
The top two players on the Order of Merit following the final event on November 6 will earn two-year tour cards onto the main PDC circuit for 2018 and 2019.
Unicorn Development Tour Event 16
Quarter-Finals
Dimitri Van den Bergh 5-3 Adam Hunt
Luke Humphries 5-2 Dan Read
Steve Lennon 5-4 Rusty-Jake Rodriguez
Ryan Meikle 5-3 Harry Ward
Semi-Finals
Luke Humphries 5-3 Dimitri Van den Bergh
Ryan Meikle 5-4 Steve Lennon
Final
Luke Humphries 5-1 Ryan Meikle
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