Darts sensation Luke Littler feels he can ascend from new gaming chair to the Palace throne.
And The Nuke is prepared to be an unpleasant beast to take his seat and complete a crazy 12 months in his life. Littler is four games from glory and faces Ryan Joyce for a last-eight place.
While kids across the country got dartboards adorning the 17-year-old’s face, the boy who is obsessed by XBox got his own special gifts as he smiled: “Oh, some clothes, some new shoes, a new gaming chair. A headset. An Xbox gift card from my mum. Even though I am sponsored by them!”
Littler’s ultimate gift is the Sid Waddell Trophy and he’ll show an aggressive side to get his hands on it. The teenager said: “I am not a nice person at times on the board. I don’t think anyone else is. But it’s always good to have that bit of aggression. It’s good for myself to show that I can be ruthless.”
Littler also has a fun side as he showed a couple of times as he interacted with the buoyant Ally Pally crowd. He waved his arms and joined in as the punters sang for his opponent Ian White at one stage before immediately smacking a 180 to silence the tune.
Littler also had an amusing nod at them when he was sarcastically booed for not attempting a bullseye at one point in the match. He said: “I try to gee myself up. Obviously in the first game I just wanted to focus on the darts, not focus on the fans.
“Obviously when you are on a nine twice, near enough they are always going to get involved. But that first game was all focus. I had a bit of fun. Interacting with the crowd, which I do. You didn’t see that much in the first game because I was nervous. But as soon as I won that first set, I was in.
“I always enjoy it. The walk-on. As soon as you are on the stage, that is when you have got to focus.”
Littler didn’t hit dizzying heights against White and also had a laugh as he mocked his own tears of the previous week by rubbing his eyes and pretending to weep.
He said: “I took the mick there. Coming into this, my mum and dad have just been saying: Relax. Focus. I don’t need to feel those nerves like I did last week. I knew I could just be at home. There was no emotion.
“Last week, everyone knew and I showed that I was human. Things do happen. Obviously, I was going to get upset. It has only taken a year!”
That year has been incredible for Littler and, as he prepares for the last game of 2024, he reflected on the chaos which has seen him go from schoolboy to celebrity. He said: “I don’t know. It’s just been a crazy, crazy ride. It’s been good to win tournaments, I’ve had setbacks and I’ve also come back from them setbacks, which is good.
“Obviously leading up to this, I won the Grand Slam. Lost out to Luke in the Players. It’s been a good year. No matter what happens this year, I’ll be happy.”
The fireworks could also fly against Joyce as Littler wants a record-breaking fifth nine-darter of the calendar year. This is the last chance to emulate Christian Kist and Damon Heta at this year’s event.
He said: “It’s been good to watch. Watched the Christian Kist nine-darter with my friends. Before I was heading down to London, Damo pinged the double 12. But those two have lost.
“It would be good to hit one. It would mean the world. I think the fans, when I do play Ryan, they’ll know that if he gets this, he breaks the record. If he doesn’t, then we will have to try again next year. But I know the record has been on the cards for many months. Hopefully it can come.”