In the blink of an eye, a Warrington teenager has become a household name at London’s Alexandra Palace in the last two weeks. Luke Littler took the PDC World Darts Championship by storm with his improbable run to the last 16, defeating seasoned pros and showing maturity beyond his years as he made headlines and national news bulletins.
Darts’ new pin-up has earned £35,000 so far and will face five-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld in the fourth round on Saturday night, with just 40 years separating the two players. A clip of him throwing darts at nappies, performing a strikingly similar action to the one he took today, went viral on social media; 7.7 million people viewed a post showing her mother Lisa opening Christmas gifts outside their home. was in the tree and this week was stopped by England internationals Aaron Ramsdale and Declan Rice to take photos at his hotel.
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But while the story of Luke “The Nuke” Littler is fascinatingly new to many outside the darts world, for those in the know, the foundations beneath the most precocious talent the sport has ever seen have taken years to build. Littler started throwing darts as soon as he learned to walk, and by the age of seven he was shooting on a standard-sized board. Fortunately, a new darts academy had been established in nearby St Helens around the same time, giving Littler the opportunity to hone his craft when he joined aged nine.
Home to darts talent with Dave Chisnall, Stephen Bunting and reigning world champion Michael Smith hailing from the area, the town was about to witness the emergence of a rare talent.
“Every Monday night we host the academy, where different age groups play in tournaments – entry fee is £2,” says co-founder Karl Holden. “I remember the first night Luke came; News spread quickly around the room that there was a special child in the under-10 tournament.
“You hear this a lot, I watched the final where he played. It stunned me. He came out straight away when he was nine or 10 and played for our under-14 teams; destroyed them. If you win three out of five weeks there, you can move on to an older age group: as a 10-year-old he won five weeks in a row with a 70-something average. “He was beating everyone.”
Littler ditched the under-16s and by the time he was 13 he was playing on the under-21s big stage, playing county darts and winning open tournaments in St Helens. “It was so good,” Holden smiles. “But there wasn’t anything else we could do for him. When he was 12 he was probably the best under-16 player in the world. I think he had lost the final of 10 men’s competitions in St Helens before he was 13 and that gave him a bit more steel. But he had to take the next step and go to the JDC He was supposed to go to.”
JDC is the Junior Darts Corporation, the breeding ground for the next generation of professional stars. Its chairman is Steve Brown, a former professional who himself was considering a return to the tour during quarantine, where he had a memorable first encounter with the youngster. “There was a lot of gossip about Luke,” Brown recalls. “I was trying to get my own game back together in quarantine to do the tour again, and I ended up playing him in an online competition.
“I think he was 12 or 13 years old and he mopped the floor with me. It gave me a little reality check on where my game was at! But he is a one in a million talent.”
Littler joined the JDC circuit at a time when another prodigy, Keane Barry, now 21, was dominating the junior scene. This changed when Littler arrived and at the age of 13 he averaged 87 points in a game against Barry. “Keane set the bar for young darts players, but Luke jumped on it and set the bar to a height I haven’t seen anyone reach for a while,” says Brown.
His list of achievements in the JDC is long and extensive, winning the world title in each of the last two years, but even while dominating the junior circuit he was making an impact at the top level. He won the men’s WDF Irish Open at the age of 14 and also averaged 111.33 in the JDC match: a figure no player had reached at this year’s world championships.
He won the PDC’s World Junior Championship final in November and flew sleeplessly to Gibraltar to try to qualify for the JDC world final. He bested 138 players before winning the final at Alexandra Palace this month. “When he joined the JDC, I explained to him that while his trajectory was upward, he could experience a decline or even a pause,” says Brown. “But that didn’t happen; I’m still waiting for that plateau. “I’m starting to think you might not come.”
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Littler’s maturity beyond his years is clearly evident on stage, and that’s no coincidence. “Our job is not only to prepare them to play darts, but also to prepare them to become professionals,” says Brown. “He must have done 50 interviews at the JDC and it was done with that in mind so that when he got into the mainstream and onto the Sky Sports cameras – which he has now – he was ready for that side of it too. That’s why he’s so relaxed and calm.”
Both Brown and Holden believe Littler can become world champion next week, but even if it doesn’t happen this year, they are confident it will happen in future years – and Luke Littler’s impact is already being felt at St Helens. “This week alone I think 20 young people showed up and wanted to sign up and play,” says Holden. “All they talk about is how they want to be the next Luke Littler.
“Michael van Gerwen won the World Masters at 17 and nobody thought he could beat it,” Brown adds. “But Luke is here, among the best, and he’s beating them. He’s a generational talent. “I’ve never seen anyone like him, and I’m not sure I ever will again.”