Littler’s plan Old Trafford trophy show
LUKE LITTLER is set to parade the Sid Waddell Trophy in front of Manchester United fans on the Old Trafford pitch.
Club officials have been speaking with Littler’s team to identify the best match this season for him to walk on the famous turf holding aloft the PDC World Darts Championship.
The best option looks to be the home clash with Brighton on Sunday January 19 – the day after he returns home from a World Series of Darts event in Bahrain.
Littler, 17, has been a United fan all his life and spoke about his desire to show it off to fellow supporters after he beat Michael van Gerwen 7-3 at Ally Pally to win the world title for the first time.
He said: “Obviously, I’d love to take it there.
“If they allow me to, then I am sure I will go to Old Trafford.
“I saw Michael Smith did it with the world title when he went to St Helens rugby league club.”
Hearn’s warning
BARRY HEARN has insisted that darts will change forever within the next five years.
Hearn, 76, believes that Littler has had an impact on the sport similar to that of Tiger Woods in golf.
He told the Sunday Times: “I would probably liken it to the arrival of Tiger Woods winning his first Major.
“Tiger was playing golf at two. Littler has been playing darts since birth almost it seems like.
“The similarities are there. Littler is bringing in a whole audience of youngsters, commercially he’s a huge success, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg.”
The final match stats reminder
Match stats from the final
Littler
Average: 102.73
180s: 12
Highest checkout: 130
Checkout percentage: 55.6
Van Gerwen
Average: 100.69
180s: 13
Highest checkout: 132
Checkout percentage: 36.8
What’s next for Littler?
After a few hours on the Xbox, the newly-crowned world champion is set to head to the Middle East later this month for the Bahrain Darts Masters.
Sixteen players will compete between January 16 and January 17.
Before that, on Monday, we will find out the Premier League line up, in which Littler is the defending champion.
No doubts whatsoever that he’ll be in that one.
Then, on January 21, it’s his birthday! The Nuke will turn 18.
Littler was kicked out of his darts academy aged 13
Childhood coach Karl Holden told BBC Sport that he booted Littler out of his academy for simply being too good.
He said: “It might sound bad but we sort of got rid of him out of the academy.
“He knows we didn’t mean that in a nasty way. It was like, ‘Don’t come here no more. You’re just too good.’
“When he was 13 he was just too good for the Under-21s. He was never going to achieve anything there so we was just saying, ‘Go and beat all the men in the world.'”
Michael van Gerwen on new world champion Luke Littler
“Fair play to him, every chance he got, every moment he had to hurt me, he did it. I sometimes say that every 17 years a star gets born, and he is one of them.
“He did well and he deserves it. Of course it hurts, but that’s how it should be. If it doesn’t hurt, you’re not going to be a sportsman.
“It is what it is at the moment and I have to move on, I have to make sure I keep playing better.
“I’m an old b****** compared to him! I have to take this on the chin. I wasn’t sharp enough at the beginning of the game.”
