The man making darts for the Premier League winner

He is 1 of nan astir successful designers successful nan sports manufacture pinch a legion of world champions to his name.

But Lee Huxtable is not wide known extracurricular nan world of darts.

On Thursday night, Luke Humphries was crowned nan 2025 champion of Premier League Darts, and he sealed triumph astatine nan O2 successful London, pinch darts designed by nan Welsh engineer.

From his Bridgend base, Mr Huxtable besides made darts for semi finalist, Gerwyn Price and Dutch subordinate Michael Van Gerwen for nan tournament, which has tally since February.

But of each nan darts players he has worked with, he is missing 1 large 1 - existent world champion, Luke Littler, whose arrows are made by rival company.

As caput of improvement for Red Dragon Darts, Mr Huxtable tries to sanction each nan world champions he has made darts for.

"Peter Wright, Gerwyn Price, Michael Van Gerwen, Luke Humphries, Trina Gulliver..." nan names support coming.

Within his work, Mr Huxtable has played a pivotal domiciled successful helping galore players excel including World number one, Humphries.

"The Luke Humphries dart is simply a agelong shaft, front-weighted short tube which creates definite magnitude of resistance and lands astatine a cleanable perspective for him successful nan committee to thief his scoring.

"Every darts subordinate is different, Peter 'snakebite' Wright's world titles mean a batch to me, maine and Peter would spell done hundreds of concepts," he said.

"His darts screen everything from short fat ones to agelong bladed ones.

"One diamond-coated dart took 18 months successful accumulation and we had chemists involved. But he went connected to triumph a world title pinch it which was very fulfilling."

In 2020, Mr Huxtable designed darts for some nan PDC and BDO world champions.

Wright and Wayne Warren some credited Mr Huxtable for his thief to make them nan champion successful nan world.

"Sometimes it mightiness return years moving pinch a player, different times you get a eureka infinitesimal and that tin beforehand a player's crippled hugely," nan technologist said.

"It could mean personification going from nan apical 32 and getting into apical 16 and making nan large time."

Mr Huxtable is besides making darts for different Welsh player, Jonny Clayton, from Carmarthenshire, who has won 4 titles pinch his darts.

"Jonny Clayton's crippled changed overnight and it skyrocketed to nan adjacent level," he said.

"He's a awesome character."

Mr Huxtable has besides been finessing nan darts of erstwhile world champion Price, from Caerphilly county, earlier he battled it retired astatine nan O2 connected Thursday.

"I've ne'er seen attraction for illustration that from Gerwyn Price," he said.

"He was a erstwhile rugby subordinate who conscionable played socially and he made it into nan apical 32.

"He said that's not bully capable and erstwhile he made it into apical 16 he still wasn't happy pinch that.

"He was truthful focused to beryllium nan champion and to return Gerwyn from being a rugby subordinate to a world champion was a large infinitesimal for us."

Mr Huxtable, from Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, has completed nan mostly of his activity from Nodor's Bridgend office for astir 25 years, but besides travels to Kenya wherever their darts are mass-produced for nan unit market.

The family-run Nodor group, which Red Dragon Darts is portion of, moved accumulation of its darts and dartboards to Kenya aft it acquired nan Winmau marque astir 20 years ago.

The sisal works grows people successful nan eastbound African state and is nan champion worldly for bristle boards, lowering operating costs.

Nodor opened up its ain income and distribution centre successful Dallas, Texas successful 2023 and now produces 30,000 sets of darts and 20,000 dartboards a week from its factories successful Kenya, and employs 1,000 staff.

Mr Huxtable said: "It's ever astir nan exertion which goes into nan dart for capacity enhancement which is nan astir important for me.

"In 1 of my favourite darts we managed to fuse 85% tungsten astatine nan backmost of nan tube pinch 95% tungsten astatine nan beforehand to move nan centre of gravity forward.

"The conception being that a batch of players for illustration a front-weighted dart but nan players don't want to make nan dart immoderate fatter astatine nan front."

With nan Luke Littler effect fuelling nan inferior game, darts is now described arsenic being successful its 3rd aureate property and attracts nan 2nd highest viewing figures connected Sky, down Premier League football.

More than 3 cardinal group watched 17-year-old Luke Littler triumph nan world title astatine Alexandra Palace successful January.

Mr Huxtable said: "The youngsters person catapulted nan game, we are seeing 12 and 13-year-olds throwing different level of darts for that age.

"By nan clip they're successful their early 20s nan modular is going to beryllium moreover higher and pinch nan viewing figures and nan prize money going up, it'll go moreover much celebrated pinch youngsters."