“Hate me or love me, you watched.” Do not be surprised if the immortal words of ten-pin bowling legend Pete Weber are soon uttered by Luke Littler. The American bowler’s retirement quotes do the rounds on TikTok and Littler, an 18-year-old of the TikTok and YouTube era, will inevitably come across them.
Most importantly, they also fit him to a tee. His march to his second consecutive World Championship saw more drama in his post-match interviews than matches. The 18-year-old fell out with the Ally Pally crowd by reminding them their highly priced tickets went towards the unprecedentedly large prize on offer.
Having only dropped three sets in his previous six encounters at darts’ Mecca, they were his most well-matched opponents. But, in Gian van Veen, he had a worthy opponent, who had already overcame World No.2 Luke Humphries and the great Gary Anderson, a player who can also shift through the gears and leave his opponents feeling strangled by his power-scoring and relentless double-hitting.
The Dutchman roared out of the traps with a 116 checkout in the first leg. Littler came out cold, missing five out of seven darts at a double, including three set darts at double 20. The 23-year-old Dutchman then followed it up with 145 and 127 checkouts, and almost took out 127 again to take set two.
Littler broke back and finished the set with a 116 checkout to level proceedings. The Nuke cranked up the pressure and took out 112, while Van Veen’s aim began to veer away from the trebles and into the lower numbers.
It’s there Littler is most deadly. Like Oleksandr Usyk in the ring – and Max Verstappen on the track – the pressure is constant, exhausting, mind-numbing and brutal. Littler took set three by hitting 170, an agonising body blow which rang the death knell for van Veen.
The most worried Littler looked was when the Ally Pally wasp appeared out of the ether and entered his airspace. The Ally Pally is a space for fancy dress, drinking, belting out rude songs about the prime minister and for more drinking but, when it comes to finals, the atmosphere becomes hushed as the bananas and the traffic cones transfix themselves on the action.
It’s there Littler comes to life, feeding off the energy of his opponent and the admiration of the crowd. Many will find his on-stage clap-backs and showmanship irritating, but it’s impossible to look away when he is in the mood.
Even van Veen, now the new World No.3 who has a winning record against Littler in 2025, began to play like he was carrying the Sid Waddell trophy on his back. Littler glided to a 3-0 set victory to go 3-1 up. Van Veen took out 137 at the start of set five and looked to have jump-started his final, but Littler recalibrated and took the next three legs.
He would take another three in a row to go 5-1 up. Van Veen’s opportunities seemed to always be outside ton-plus opportunities or two treble combinations, while Littler always seemed to have time. With every missed double or loose dart, van Veen’s words to himself grew more stern and his head sunk further down.
No matter how high the stakes are against you, you just cannot do that against Littler. Like a darts, energy vampire he feeds off the negative energy and channels it into his darts.
It did not take long for Littler to wrap up his second world title with a breath-taking 147 checkout.
Littler’s fans and haters had no choice but to rise as one and applaud the teenager, who has truly stamped his mark on global darts and sport as a whole.
