Luke Littler claimed a 3-1 victory and produced an astonishing fourth set as the PDC World Darts Championship favourite booked his place in the next round on Saturday night
He’s back – and as emotional Luke Littler declared Christmas officially open, he announced himself with one of the greatest sets you’ll ever see.
Rattled like a church band tambourine by demon barber Ryan Meikle, who gave him a hair-raising ride, Luke the Nuke dissolved into tears in his post-match interview. Littler had to go through the gears, and turn on the afterburners, get the job done and avoid sport’s biggest upset since Buster Douglas beat up Mike Tyson.
But when the pressure was on, the boy wonder reached into his top hat and produced sheer magic, averaging 140.91 in the fourth set to clinch his 3-1 win with legs of 11, 10 and 11 darts. He missed out on a perfect leg by a whisker, wiring double 12 with the ninth arrow, but nobody could have lived with that blistering onslaught.
For three sets, where Meikle’s darts usually had the precision of his clippers, Littler’s handiwork veered between the sublime to Edward Scissorhands’ scattergun distribution. But the finish was more out of this world than Pluto.
Littler had to cut short his ‘flash’ interview with Sky Sports as his emotions overwhelmed him, and he sought sanctuary in the arms of his mum Lisa at ringside.
The teen sensation was being interviewed on stage by Sky Sports’ Abigail Davies before the chat was cut short as the tears began to flow. Littler said “I started off dead slow…” and then had to compose himself, serenaded by the crowd with chants of “There’s only one Luke Littler”.
Eventually, after composing himself, Littler said: “That was the toughest game I have played. I had to fight until the end. It is good to be back. It is the worst game I have played. Maybe as nervy as I had in my first game of the Premier League.
“My bottom went a bit nervous on that stage at the start. After the first question, the tears came. I thought to myself: What am I doing? It was a bit too much to speak on stage.”
Do not adjust your sets, that was not a misprint. He averaged 140.91 in that final set.
No wonder he trousered 10 titles and more than £1million in prize money in his first year on the PDC circuit. No wonder he is 7-4 favourite to win the Paddy Power PDC World championship this time.
Returning to the north London hilltop fortress he picketed so brilliantly as a 16-year-old, the Littler effect on darts has been startling. The vermin of every sporting occasion where demand outstrips supply, Del Boy touts, were on parade hours before His Lukeship was due on stage. Supermarket giants Asda have reported a 1,900 per cent increase in sales of dartboards, with Littler’s home town Warrington leading the surge.
And when discerning armchair viewers were presented with a prime-time dilemma – whether to watch a heavyweight £24.99 pay-per-view heist in Saudi Arabia or a barber trying to cut a phenomenon down to size – the majority chose wisely.
To widespread astonishment, Littler had been on parade at Ally Pally before noon – to present Lex Paeshuyse with the trophy as the 13-uyear-old Belgian became the youngest JDC world junior champion.
Try getting a teenager out of bed before midday on a Saturday and you’ll know why the PDC were delighted to accommodate their prizegriving volunteer. Meikle, ranked No.62 in the world, was not just the underdog as he walked into the cauldron of 3,200 belching, farting partygoers.
Few beyond his Suffolk constituency fancied him to win any more than they would fancy their chances of surviving a short back and sides from Edward Scissorhands. When regular customers at Nick’s Gents Haridressers in Saxmundham asked him what he was doing with the clippers and razor ahead of his tilt at the people’s champion, Meikle shrugged: “What else would I be doing? It’s my job.”
In the first leg of the match, you would never have guessed Littler was 7-4 favourite with the bookies to lift the Sid Waddell Trophy on January 3. He scattered his arrows across the board like a flapping waiter spilling the soup.
Luke the Nuke had already broken the PDC’s record for the most 180s in a season – 766 of them before start of play – and when he added four more to the tally before pinching the first set on a tops-tops finish, his animated reaction spoke volumes. But if Littler thought his nerves would settle, he was sorely mistaken.
Too often his first dart headed south of the target and Meikle – steady and measured – chipped away to level the contest at 1-1.
And Littler needed to produce exceptional arrows – an absolutely mind-blowing finish – to reach the third round, where he will meet Ian ‘Diamond’ White.
