Luke Humphries has been heralded for not retaliating to the World Grand Prix crowd’s relentless chants about Leeds.
The World No1 was stunned in the final by 25th seed Mike De Decker, who overcame the world champion 6-4. Missing out on the victory and the £120,000 prize is painful enough, but a hostile crowd rubbed extra salt in his wounds by singing ‘Leeds are falling apart again’.
Humphries, 29, has previously urged fans to “leave the football chants at home,” but his request has been ignored. Instead of making the same request or biting back, Humphries managed to maintain his composure.
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When Humphries stepped up to accept his second-place trophy, chants of “Leeds are falling apart again” filled the atmosphere. The chants derive from Leicester City edging out Leeds last season to win the Championship, before the Whites lost the play-off final to Southampton.
Humphries cracked a smile and urged the crowd to chant louder, while also applauding them. After the match, one fan on social media said: “Just class isn’t he?”
Another wrote: “Class as per” before another supporter tweeted: “Fair play to @lukeh180 tonight took defeat like a man even had a bit of banter with the crowd… unbelievable talent and a joy to watch.”
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A third fan said: “He handles it so well, most players’ heads would be on Mars,” before a fourth wrote: “He’s got the right attitude that lad love him.”
One fan even hit out at fans who claim they do not like him when they said: “Class act on and off the oche. The hate for Humphries is so forced and just stems from jealous nobodies who don’t like to see others be successful.”
Despite not clinching the win, Humphries was nothing but complimentary in his interview. Cool Hand said: “I’m obviously gutted to lose – I felt like I really was just on the wires of everything.
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“It’s frustrating but I’m so proud of Mike, he showed so much bottle. I know how it felt like to be in that position a year ago and he looked as cool as anything.
“It wasn’t my night and sometimes you have to accept that it isn’t – but you’ve got a great champion and he’s got a target on his back now like I’ve got. He’s a fantastic guy, a great player. There’s a lot more big things to come from him after this.”