Luke Littler is already used to lifting trophies (Picture: Kieran Cleeves/PDC)
16-year-old Luke Littler is going to be attracting a lot of attention when he makes his World Darts Championship debut on Wednesday, but he wasn’t aware just how much attention his opponent received 11 years ago.
Littler is the hottest young prospect in darts, winning the Winmau World Youth Championship last month and retaining his JDC World Championship title on the Alexandra Palace stage on Sunday.
He is now making his debut in the main event of the PDC World Championship, taking on Christian Kist who caused a stunning upset to win the BDO world title on debut at Lakeside back in 2012.
Kist beat Tony O’Shea to claim the BDO crown just before Littler’s fifth birthday and asked if he had a distant memory of that event, the teenager did not.
‘I didn’t even know he had won it!’ Littler said. ‘I have seen him on the Tour a few years ago. He has done well on the Challenge Tour and I know what he is capable of. He has been invited to ProTours.
‘But it’s whatever happens at Ally Pally. I played the world youth final, the JDC, at Ally Pally. And I have watched an afternoon session to let it sink in. What goes on in the crowd. I am looking forward to the atmosphere. And hopefully the crowd are on my side.’
Littler has been racking up youth and amateur titles at an incredible rate and made an impressive start to his career at PDC majors as he made the fourth round of the UK Open this year.
He is not short of confidence and already fancies his chances of knocking off his first two opponents at Ally Pally.
‘I know the trophy is there. If my game is there then I have a decent chance of winning my first two games,’ he said.
‘I watched the draw in Gibraltar, seeing I have Christian Kist and then [Andrew] Gilding. Not to be big-headed but I do fancy my chances against Kist and then if I do win, I do fancy my chances against Gilding.
‘Whatever it brings, I will have to take it on. If I win my first game, I will be happy.’
The youngster may be a new face to the sporting public, but he has been playing for an amazingly long time given his age, starting very early and looking up to the GOAT.
‘I first picked up a set of magnetic darts when was about one and a half years old,’ Littler explained. ‘My mum and dad got it for me. At the age of four, I started playing on a small board with proper Phil Taylor darts. Around the age of six or seven, I started throwing from the proper height in proper length. Proper darts from nine years old.
‘It was come back from school, darts, watch whatever darts was o the TV. I practised while it was on. I’ve always been watching it and I’ve always been playing.
‘My hero was Phil Taylor, obviously. I met him at a Target Dart launch this year and he just said, he had been watching me. He told me, keep it up. He did an interview with Online Darts saying he would be watching me at the worlds. That’s massive to think that Phil Taylor will be watching me on TV. It is crazy.’
‘Not to be big-headed but I do fancy my chances.’