Luke Littler’s bid to retain his PDC World Championship crown has been given a huge boost with biggest rival Luke Humphries now out.In the final quarter-final tie, Humphries had no answers for the superb Gian van Veen, who inflicted a 5-1 thumping on the man who held the world no.1 spot for the best part of two years until November. Van Veen’s devastating darts dumped Humphries out in the quarter-finalsGettyIt’s surely Littler’s title to lose nowGettyIt was a virtuoso Van Veen display at Alexandra Palace, the 23-year-old Dutchman averaging 105.41 as he stormed to the semi-finals. Humphries didn’t perform badly, he averaged 101.12 in the match, but the 2024 champion looked magnanimous in defeat once his fate was sealed knowing he was beaten by a classy opponent who was totally locked in.There were no problems for Littler earlier in the evening on New Year’s Day as he dispatched Poland’s Krzysztof Ratajski 5-0.Joining Humphries and Van Veen in the semis are Ryan Searle, who’s in the final four for the first time ever and two-time champion Gary Anderson.On talkSPORT.com’s Daily Dose’ column, we bring you more about Humphries’ shock exit as well as things you may have missed from the action on New Year’s Day.Humphries humiliatedAfter ending the fairy tale run of Justin Hood during the afternoon session, Anderson would’ve been forgiven for believing that he had a semi-final date with Humphries. The Scot was full of praise for the Newbury-born thrower, insisting in his post-match press conference that Humphries was still ‘the man’ in darts over Littler despite the 18-year-old usurping his rival as world no.1 during the Grand Slam of Darts in November. Van Veen stuck it to the man later that night with a sensational coming-of-age performance by the youngster. ‘The Giant’ clinched a tight first set before being pegged back by Humphries.It would’ve been easy for Humphries, who promised he’d win this year’s Worlds prior to the tournament, to run away with victory but his opponent levelling only inspired Van Veen to rise to the occasion.Van Veen won the European Championship in OctoberGettyHumphries has lost four successive matches against Van VeenGettyVictory also sees Van Veen become the no.1 Dutch player in darts, ahead of Michael van Gerwen, having gone up to third in the world rankings as a result.“This smile won’t go away over the next 24 hours,” Van Veen said immediately after his semi-final place was booked.“I felt really, really good. I saw it was a 105 average and that sums up how I felt. Indescribable.“Luke is a fantastic player. Whenever I play Luke, I know I have to play my best. 100 per cent this is my biggest win. This is bigger than the European Championship. I’m so proud.”‘Lazy’ Littler love-inIf Van Veen can carry on this form for the remainder of the tournament, there’s no reason why he can’t win the whole thing and beat Littler too. But Littler is the overwhelming favourite to win the World Championship following Humphries’ exit and he performed like a champion with his thumping of Ratajski.No dramas between Littler and the paying fans this timeGettyThe Warrington wizard had a rather surprising revelation post-match though, as he told talkSPORT: “I am very happy with the performance. Three consecutive semi-finals, and I am now looking at three consecutive finals if I can get past Ryan Searle tomorrow.“I haven’t played darts for two-and-a-half days. I’ve just been lazy in the house, so hopefully, I can play a bit better tomorrow.“I didn’t do a great deal wrong, but I’ve not practised for that long. It has been a bit of a while, but I can get plenty of hours in before tomorrow.”Littler’s win wasn’t the story, though as eyes and ears were on the reception he received at Ally Pally after his frosty exchange with the fans when scraping past Rob Cross in the last-16. And Littler has seemingly patched things up with the darts faithful with ‘The Nuke’ being serenaded with a rousing ‘there’s only one Luke Littler’ rendition.“The crowd were very good tonight. The fans were great, and I was good,” Littler told Sky Sports after his win. “It is new year, so maybe there was a new crowd in.”Littler is the reigning World Champion and is on course to defend it this yearAFPAnd finallyWith Littler and Van Veen’s appearances making for a rather youthful semi-final line-up, there is one star bringing the average age up in Anderson. The 55-year-old rolled back the years with a dominant 5-2 triumph over a man who claimed the scalps of Josh Rock and Danny Noppert in Justin Hood. Along with another semi-finalist Searle, Anderson has made it clear that he doesn’t care for getting to the top as much as his peers, but three-time world champion on the CV would be a nice brag.The 2015 and 2016 champion used his post-match press conference to candidly shed some insight into why he was never cut out to be one of the greats of darts though. “Eric Bristow, Phil Taylor, Van Gerwen, Luke Humphries, Luke Littler, to me, they’re the players,” Anderson said.“I call them greedy, you know, it’s not that they want to win, they need to win. Because they’re that good, and it just keeps them going, you know, I’m going to win this, I’m going to win that. Don’t write off Anderson either – he has won the Worlds more than any other player left in the tournamentGetty“I’ve never been like that, that’s my downfall. You come, you play, and you take what’s given to you, and that’s it, but at the same time, I’ve had a good life. “I’ve got things outside of darts, which I love to bits, and, you know, that’s it.”But Anderson insists he has no regrets on how he’s conducted himself in his career, as he said: “Not one single second. “I’ve enjoyed life, I’ve not spent all my days at a dart board, I’ve worked out and done things, seen places, through darts.“I’ve seen places, but, you know, I’ve got my legs, I work hard at my legs, I’ve got the kids, you know, they’ve got gymnastics, football, darts, whatever, so if I was away all that time, that wouldn’t happen, so I don’t regret one little bit of it.”