Teenage darts sensation Luke Littler has choked back tears after producing “one of the greatest sets of darts” to advance to the third round of the World Darts Championship at the Alexandra Palace in London.
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The 17-year-old, who has taken the darts world by storm since his electric run to the final of the previous World Darts Championship, needed only 11 darts, ten darts and 11 darts again to win the three legs required to take a third set, and the second round match again fellow Englishman Ryan Meikle.
Littler was agonisingly close to what would have been a record-breaking fifth nine-darter of the year with that ten dart leg.
He needed double 12 to complete a perfect leg but missed by the barest of margins, and held his fingers together to the crowd to show the tiny amount his dart stayed out by.
Nevertheless, his numbers in the match-clinching set were mind-blowing, as he recorded a three-dart average of 140.91, the highest in World Championship history.
“It is one of the greatest sets of darts we have potentially ever seen at the World Championships,” Sky Sports commentator Wayne Mardle said on the broadcast.
“One of the most astonishing sets of darts you will ever see. 141 set average from Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler. Even when he is subdued, even when he isn’t at his best, it doesn’t last long because you cannot contain this lad’s talent, and ability, and brute strength as a darts player.”
“That is why he is the favourite to win the world title. An incredible set to win the match. He will be back after Christmas.
“Luke ‘The Nuke’ has lit up the Palace. Very nearly produced another nine-darter.”
Littler was battling early in his first match of the tournament – as a seeded player he earned a first round bye – and an upset appeared to be on the cards.
In the best-of-five sets match, Littler and Meikle were tied at one set apiece with the former’s three-dart average of 93 well below his usual standards.
Littler even turned to crowd and passionately said “relax, I’m here, relax” when he hit tops – double 20 – with consecutive throws to claim the first set.
But it was not until the third set of the match that the number four seed changed gears in drastic fashion, and the win left him near speechless post-match.
Littler could only manage to say “I started off dead slow” before his tears took over as the crowd serenaded him with chants of ‘there’s only one Luke Littler’.
Once off the stage, Littler was able to compose himself to reflect on his incredible performance.
“It was probably the toughest game I’ve ever played, but as a player you’ve got to get over the line,” he said.
“The last set, I don’t know where I pulled it from. Hit a few 180s early on.
“It’s good to be back (at the Alexandra Palace). Train journey down and I couldn’t wait. But got on that stage, bottoms gone a bit nervous, but I just had to find it somewhere, and I know I’ve got it, and that’s what I did in that final set.”
Littler’s remarkable effort capped off a big week for the 17-year-old from Warrington, a town between Manchester and Liverpool in England’s north, after he was named the BBC’s Young Sports Personality of the Year.
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