Luke Littler has revealed the stunning moment he didn’t want to be on the Ally Pally stage.
The 17-year-old is back home chilling for Christmas after his emotionally-charged return to the World Darts Championships. After being overwhelmed and shedding tears following his win over Ryan Meikle, Littler explained the strains which have built. He said: “All week I was looking forward and excited to play on the stage with no nerves. Train journey down here was fine. Be myself. Then, as soon as I got on that stage, it was like ‘I don’t want to be here’. That game was probably the most important game I have ever played.
“In my head, it was tough. But I just dragged myself over the line. Throughout the game there were nerves. The crowd had never been like that for me. When I was leading up to it, I was perfectly fine, then it was ‘game on’, the bottom’s gone. It fell out. Throughout the year, it has been fine. Saturday was something different. That was something else.”
Littler has sparked an explosion of mini-Nukes into launching darts on Christmas Day, but he won’t be going near a board himself. The same excruciating hype which brought Saturday’s waterworks has also brought a nation of children to the game with his face on unwrapped presents across Britain. Littler-mania has swept the UK with ASDA have announced a staggering 1,900 per cent increase on the sales of dartboards and put it squarely down to the teenager’s popularity and stardom.
He admitted: “It’s been crazy, I don’t know how much Target have let go to the likes of Argos, all those other places. I know Smyths have done an awful lot. I know I have done a lot. I am the only one to bring out a magnetic board. As the youngster it was always the thing I used.
“When I was younger and I got some FIFA points, I’d be absolutely on it all day, but now the kids I know, a lot of them will be on the magnetic boards and proper dartboards. There will be a lot of darts thrown on Christmas Day. I won’t be playing on Christmas Day! No!”
Littler will get his own gifts, but smiled: “I don’t even like saying it, but the money I have earned, I haven’t even asked for anything. My mum and dad said they’d got me something. I’ll be grateful, but I haven’t asked for anything. Almost got everything. I have got them something.”
In truth, the biggest gift Littler could get is an escape from the limelight for a few days. The sheer weight of expectation and anticipation inside the Palace for his Meikle game was almost suffocating. Clearly, having coped so admirably throughout the past 12 months in a searing spotlight since his run to last year’s Final, it all simply caught up him.
Somehow, despite the anxiety and stress, Littler managed to throw a Championship-record set average of almost 141 in the fourth and also wired a nine-darter before the overwhelming nature of the occasion took hold at the finale. Littler has had to deal with so much at a young age and explained: “I know myself, I am 17, I do what a 17-year-old boy does. I don’t do anything else.
“I know from now on, I am going to stop myself getting nerves. I will think to myself: I don’t need to be nervous now, I am through to the third round. That last set I wasn’t even thinking of the average, I was just thinking about getting over the line. I know what I can produce, I know what I have produced all year, it has been the best darts of my life. The experience has been absolutely amazing. I don’t think I can get more experienced as it comes.”