‘Luke the Nuke’ goes out with a bang, but no victory
Luke Littler’s loss at the final hurdle cannot take away from his impact on the country and the sport
Having surprised everyone even those who until last week knew nothing about darts and were unsure whether to be surprised or not, the putative people’s champion 16-year-old Luke ‘the Nuke’ Littler stumbled at the final hurdle in The
World Darts Championship at the Alexandra Palace. Amid scenes of drunken mayhem, though to be frank this being the final it had been drunken mayhem even before the contest proper had begun.
Littler was defeated by another Luke, the world’s No 1 ranked player Luke Humphries by seven sets to four. It had been a long night, the contest ebbing and flowing as first one player then first took and then sacrificed the lead. When Humphries finally triumphed a man beside me dressed as an elf broke down in tears.
On reflection, I can see that failing to dress up as a banana, or at the very least a darts board, was a mistake. At Alexandra Palace there were punters dressed as leprechauns, teddy bears, sporting novelty top hats with flashing lights. A Dutch man appeared to have come dressed as a baby. Actually, lots of people had come dressed as babies, and many more were wearing chickens on their heads. The World Darts
Championship is like a fancy dress party on acid. “The thing to remember is that nobody’s come for the darts,” Mark Hawks, who travelled from Leeds dressed in a suit that seemed to have been fabricated from sparklers, told me. “If you want to watch the darts you’re better off staying at home watching on the telly. People have come for the craic.” Mark has been
‘Darts has become compulsory viewing, even for those who had never seen a match’
‘The mood was like the finals of the World Cup and Wimbledon rolled into one’
coming to the World Championships for 10 years, “and it’s just got worse and worse”. Or better and better. But this year was something special – the putative crowning of a world champion like no-one had ever seen before.
Littler has captured the nation’s heart, with support swelling in unlikely places. Darts has become compulsory viewing, even for those who had never seen a match before in their lives.
In his hometown of Warrington, Asda created a limited edition “dartboard” pizza in his honour, while a local takeaway is peddling a “Luke the Nuke” kebab.
Tickets were selling for more than £1,000 in advance of last night’s final, with some holders cashing by reselling theirs for a 44 per cent mark-up as people clamoured to get a space. Another young sportsman, Romeo Beckham, was among those watching, as well as boxer Dereck Chisora.
For many, Littler is an improbable sporting hero. At 16, he was poised to become the youngest player ever to reach the Championship final, a rank outsider having progressed with astonishing ease through the rounds to meet the world’s new No 1, Luke Humphries. Think Emma Raducanu with arrows.
Littler has become the story, an object of fascination, excitement and, in some quarters, naked disbelief. Social media has been ringing with disobliging questions about whether Littler, with his full beard and imposing build, is actually 16 at all. One fan commented that he “looks like he’s in his 30s and has four weans and drives a battered Vauxhall Insignia”.
Even before last night Littler had pocketed more than £200,000 from his run in the championship – more than enough to afford a BMW if he passes his driving test – and according to sports agents he is on course to be a multimillionaire by the time he’s 18.
The youngest ever player to reach the decider of the premier darts tournament by seven years, Littler was brought up in Warrington by parents Antony, a taxi driver, and mum Lisa, a candle shop worker. He started playing darts at the age of 18 months and was already demonstrating, so legend has it, an almost perfect technique.
“And that’s where it started,” he has recalled in an unusual account of early sporting prowess, “18 months in a nappy, on a magnetic board and then four or five I was on a proper board.”
At that age, he “walked up to the board like a professional darts player”, his grandfather Phil said. “Not just slinging his darts anywhere. Walked up and threw them. I said, ‘Where did you learn to throw like that?’ He said, ‘I watched the darts with my dad.’
“Phil Taylor throws like that. He said, ‘That’s how they throw and that’s how I’m going to throw.’”
Attending the St Helens Darts Academy, he won an under-14 title at the age of nine. He wanted to be a footballer, but his father encouraged him to give up the game and concentrate on darts instead. At 10 he hit his first 180. At the age of 14 he won his first seniors title at the Irish Open – and by his own account had a full beard.
Prizes, and prize money followed, academic achievement went to the wind. He has no GCSES – as if he cares about that.
Described by his parents as a “quiet” and “down to earth lad”, the Nuke has a 21-year-old girlfriend, Eloise Milburn, a beautician, whom he met playing video games and who shares his passion for darts, representing the Surrey Women’s darts side. They have been a couple for only six weeks, obliging her mother Amanda to describe claims that she is a “money-grabber” as “disgusting”.
Sports journalists have argued that the intensive training regime that Littler has described as “wake up, play on my Xbox, have some food, have a chuck on the board, go to bed”, makes a mockery of him being compared to true sportsmen and women who sacrifice their lives to torturing their bodies on the track, in the gym or pool.
Sport or not, it is a test of supreme skill, nerves of steel and an ability to figure out every possible permutation of numbers on a dart board in the hazardous journey from 501 to zero.
As the moment of Littler’s appearance neared, fortified by a ham and cheese omelette taken at a nearby cafe, the mood in the hallowed arena of the Alexandra Palace, where enough drink was being taken to float a battleship, was progressing nicely from the drunken to the delirious.
If the sight of two grown men – alright, one grown man and a teenager who looks uncannily like a grown man – chucking darts at a board would seem lacking in spectacle, the occasion and the fans provide it in spades.
Before his gallant loss, he was planning to take his mates on an outing to Blackpool or Alton Towers, adding: “They’ve told me I can pay.”
He may have to get used to that...