For those who believe you can never save the bar from darts, Luke Littler’s story involves an unexpected and largely unknown twist. And it’s a change that has transformed darts apprenticeship from a skill once largely honed over a pint in smoke-filled rooms to child-friendly, alcohol-free ‘academies’ in every corner of the world.
“We’ve been waiting for this moment for over a decade,” says Steve Brown, a former professional who felt generations of kids (and their parents) could stay away from more traditional paths and opened his first academy in 1920. The function room above The Bull in Bristol, a bar owned by his father.
The idea has since been replicated in Britain and as far as China, Australia and even Mongolia; Littler, 16, who failed to win the World Championship on Wednesday night, became the first product of Junior Darts. Corporation is a full-fledged competitive environment for children aged eight to 18 to reach this level.
“It was 2010 when I first had this idea,” says Brown. “I was acting on TV at the time and my son was showing great interest. I didn’t want him to learn the traditional way that I learned, which was going to the bar with my dad, being around a lot of adults in that kind of environment.
“We put a little ad in the newspaper and in the first week 30 kids showed up, all with their own darts, all with their own styles and darts t-shirts. They played in bedrooms and garages but had nowhere to go. “His parents had the same philosophy as me and so there was a bit of a Eureka moment and it developed from there.”
With a martial arts-based grading system where kids start with a white shirt and work their way up to black, the academies organize their sessions to ensure players receive equal table time regardless of their current level.
The JDC now has several tiers, with boys potentially progressing to what is called the Basic Tour before trying to place among the top 32 in the JDC’s Advanced Tour, where Littler has dominated in recent years.
“We’re setting them up for greatness; these are the next generation of PDC superstars,” says Brown, who runs a program that even includes the Center of Excellence in Coventry, which has a media room and broadcast studio for YouTube so players can get acclimated. Acting in front of the cameras.
Brown first became aware of Littler (who had also spent countless hours practicing at home and in bars with his father Anthony) in 2017, but realized he was a special talent during the Covid-19 quarantine when Littler was 13. .
“There’s always the next big thing, so I try not to get too excited until they leave school, but Luke is the exception to that rule,” says Brown. “I waited for him to stabilize but he continues to move forward.
“I was still a professional during Covid, so I was playing online to keep an eye on things. I ended up playing Luke and he absolutely beat me.
“I thought, ‘Wow.’ He was so good I wondered if he was cheating! You couldn’t see the player shooting online; just the wood. He was extraordinary. That changed my mind.”
Brown saw Littler again at a tournament in Gibraltar shortly before this World Championship and was so confident of his potential impact that he offered a warning and good luck.
“I knew how good he was under pressure because I saw him dominate the men’s competition on the amateur stage over the last two or three years and the stats don’t lie,” Brown says. “He is so used to winning that the thought of losing no longer comes to his mind; He plays fearlessly and has no battle scars.
“I said, ‘Luke, make sure you’re mentally prepared for the next two weeks because your life is going to change; I said, ‘You’re going to get a lot of attention.’ But I wouldn’t do these interviews if I didn’t think Luke was mentally strong enough. “When he comes on stage, he takes on a different character.”
Brown says the unseen impact of the last two weeks has already been tremendous.
“The players are getting younger every day and there are some people who are on the same path as Luke, not where he is now but certainly at the level he was at when he was 12 years old.
“All of our academy directors up and down the country are inundated with parents asking their children to find out where the nearest academy is. We’re working really hard to change people’s perception of the game and that will go a long way.
“When I played football as a child, I was embarrassed to tell my friends that I was a darts player. It had a stamp. My goal was to change the darts percentage and do what I could to help kids who play darts become the cool kids at school. “This is a huge deal.”