Teenager Luke Littler reaches World Darts Championship quarter-finals
Teenage darts prodigy Luke Littler continued his historic World Championship journey by beating his childhood hero Raymond van Barneveld to reach the quarter-finals. The 16-year-old, from Runcorn, Cheshire, set the Alexandra Palace tournament alight on debut and became the youngest ever player to reach the last eight after a stunning 4-1 win. He showed maturity and talent way beyond his tender years to get past the five-time world champion, who he used to imitate in front of the television as a three-year-old. He peppered the treble 20 nine times and finished with an emphatic average of 105.01.
The teenager has been a fan-favourite with many hoping he can make it all the way to the final on 3 January 2024 and become the youngest ever PDC World Champion. Michael van Gerwen currently holds the record having prevailed in 2014 at 24-years-old.
Littler's skills are that of a seasoned professional, but Luke spent his Christmas like most other boys his age - playing Xbox and spending time with family.
Speaking to Granada Reports after his last 16 victory, he said: "I was just happy to be home, I think I must have thrown about nine or 12 darts while I was home. I was just chilled out, seeing the family and on my Xbox."
Littler, who has made the world sit up and take notice, will come back on New Year’s Day for a winnable quarter-final tie against Brendan Dolan and will be dreaming of going all the way. Life has changed immeasurably since ‘The Nuke’ came into the tournament on the back of winning the World Youth Championship last month. He is now a recognisable name and has enjoyed celebrity status after bursting on to the scenes with wins over Christian Kist, Andrew Gilding and Matt Campbell.
Littler and his family received complimentary tickets to watch Arsenal in the Premier League on Thursday night, while players from his beloved Manchester United sent him good luck messages before the match. He has catapulted himself into the mainstream and whatever happens between now and Wednesday’s final, it will be Littler’s journey that is the talking point of the tournament.
He was not even born when Van Barneveld won the last of his five titles. Video footage has emerged of a three-year-old Littler copying "Barney’s" celebration and has admitted it was a dream to play him on the Ally Pally stage. Littler enjoyed Van Barneveld’s famous walk-on as much as the raucous crowd, but soon got down to business, throwing a maximum on just his second visit and raced to the first set after an 11-dart leg.
He continued to dominate and went 3-0 up before moving one leg from dreamland. Van Barneveld made him work hard for it by winning the next leg, but nothing was going to stop the teenager in the next set as the apprentice beat the master in style. Next up is Dolan, who beat his second former world champion in three days when he ousted Gary Anderson 4-3. It looked like the Northern Irishman, who dumped out Gerwyn Price in the third round, was heading out as Anderson rallied from 2-0 down to lead 3-2. But Dolan composed himself and won the final two sets to reach the last eight. “I’m over the moon,” he said. “I just think so much of Gary and how brilliant he is. “It is not a bad couple of days. There has certain things that have happened that maybe make me think it’s meant to be.”
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