Luke “the Nuke” Littler, a 16-year-old darts prodigy, kept a remarkable sporting dream alive on Monday, imperiously defeating a player three times his age and becoming the youngest player, by some margin, to get to the semi-finals of the world championships.
Littler, from Warrington, beat the 50-year-old Northern Irishman Brendan “the History Maker” Dolan in his quarter-final match at Alexandra Palace in London.
It was a confident, devastating performance in front of 3,500 vocal darts fans. “Luke doesn’t need to use the Force,” said Sky Sports commentator Dan Dawson. “He is the Force.”
Afterwards, Littler exuded confidence. “Wow, I’m in a semi-final on my debut,” he said. “I’m glad to get here … I’ve earned it.”
Asked if he could win the tournament outright, Littler said: “If I keep it up, I’ve got a good chance. I am dreaming. I’m two days away so I’m definitely thinking about lifting the title.”
Littler is making darts history by being so young but also professional sporting history. Martina Hingis was 15 when she won her first tennis grand slam and Pelé was 17 when he won the Fifa World Cup with Brazil.
The 16-year-old got to Monday’s quarter-final by defeating one of his heroes, Raymond van Barneveld, a player he idolised even as a three-year-old.
On Tuesday Littler will face Rob “Voltage” Cross in the semi-final and pundits see no reason he won’t go all the way. “He goes on and on and on and it is going to take something spectacular to stop the Nuke,” said Dawson.
John Part, a three-times world champion, said: “He is absolutely at home on this stage, that’s the best way to put it. He loves it up there … he’s an artist.”
Littler seems to thrive on the sport’s traditionally rowdy, boozy crowds. At one point in the quarter-final match he turned to the crowd and nonchalantly asked if he should try to win the leg with a bullseye.
He appears to love it even when the crowd chants “you’re going to school in the morning”, which occurs regularly and, technically, is inaccurate since Littler has officially left school.
There seems little need for him to go back. He wins £100,000 for winning on Monday and will pick up £500,000 if he wins the PDC World Darts Championship outright.
Littler has described himself as an ordinary teenager away from darts. “Just wake up, play on my Xbox, have some food, have a chuck on the board and go to bed, that’s it,” he said.
A Manchester United supporter, Littler accepted invitations to watch Arsenal last Thursday and, at the invitation of the footballer James Maddison, he watched the Tottenham Hotspur game on Sunday.
The rise of Littler from the Cheshire county darts team to such success on his world championship debut is undeniably an extraordinary one. But it does not surprise people who know him.
“Look at his eyes,” said Karl Holden, who co-founded St Helens Darts Academy, where Littler learned his craft. “He is focused when he gets to the oche. He is always thinking and working out which way to go.”
With school finished Littler has said: “It’s darts, darts, darts now.”
Away from football, the Xbox and darts superstardom, Littler has also admitted a love of kebabs, something not lost on Warrington’s local food ordering app, Warrington Eats, which has promised him on social media: “Free takeaway on us any time that you want it. Doing Warrington Proud.”
