Luke who’s in Prem hot seat
ON his first night in the grown-ups’ private club, the boy who would be king was the new Prince of Wales.
Luke Littler (above) will never forget his BETMGM Premier League debut, a 6-2 win against Luke Humphries in a reprise of their PDC World Championship final 29 days earlier.
With a Welsh crowd favouring the 17-year-old ahead of the world No.1 in the latest battle of the Lukes of Hazard, the kid showed no trace of nerves in the rock ’n’ roll atmosphere of Cardiff’s Utilita Arena.
He averaged 100.30 and didn’t just look to the manor born again – he announced himself with another teenage rampage.
In fairness, Humphries (right) was twice distracted by an ill-mannered, high-pitched whistle on game shots, and Cool Hand Luke had a face like thunder at the post-match handshakes.
Littler took out six of his 10 shots at a double, while the ‘other’ Luke hit only only two of his 10 attempts – but take nothing away from the Warrington whizzkid. As Premier League debuts go, that was impressive by any yardstick.
In a city where rugby remains the church of thirst among equals, there was a new religion on the banks of the River Taff. The fancy-dress parade of sombreros and bananas was confirmation that darts is now the hottest ticket on the market, especially when Littler is centre stage and 4,000 fans were serenading home favourite Gerwyn Price with Yma o Hyd.
And the epidemic of dart-throwing goal celebrations by footballers - life imitating darts, as one inspired commentator put it – has been inspired by the boy wonder more than anyone.
On the eve of his Premier League debut, Littler had been welcomed to the ‘Big Boys Club’ by Dutch master Michael van Gerwen, with a warning the old guard would show him “no mercy”.
But after winning both their last two meetings – Luke the Nuke beat Humphries in Holland last weekend – Littler needs no lectures in ruthlessness. His fairy-tale run to the
PDC World Championship final, and winning a World Series tournament at the first attempt in Bahrain last month, had already set him apart among sport’s young pretenders to the throne.
Even if he goes on to finish bottom of the pile, and scatters his arrows across venues in seven countries in the Premier League’s travelling circus, he will bank a minimum £60,000.
If he lifts the trophy at London’s O2 on the Greenwich Meridian in May, the payday will rise to £275,000. Nice pocket money if you can get it.
Littler means business, and he is relishing a nostalgic return to Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena in
April, where a Thursday night treat as an 11-year-old became unforgettably poignant.
“There is a picture of me in Liverpool attending a Premier League night in 2018,” he recalled. “One of my mates said to me that night, ‘That will be you one day.’
“It was the night Eric Bristow passed away, and I remember nobody left. Everybody was just singing his name, it was really emotional.
“When I go to Liverpool, I will put a post on social media before – a picture of me in the stands, and then a picture of me on stage. It will be a dream come true.”