You do not see many finishes that leave both players bent over laughing on the oche, but Luke Littler managed it in Wigan. Needing 97 to close out Stephen Bunting in the semi-finals of Players Championship 32, the teenager ignored the textbook routes and went outer bull, double 18, double 18. The pair collapsed into hysterics, embraced, and walked off stage still grinning. Official channels immediately branded it showbiz stuff. That is about right.
This was not a novelty dart thrown in a dead leg. It sealed a 7-4 win in a proper scrap against the world number four, after Littler had already produced a 164 checkout in the previous leg to put himself on the brink. Bunting averaged 107. Littler went past 109. The finish was ridiculous, the standard was not. That combination is why the moment travelled so fast.
The bigger picture sat behind the laughter. Littler arrived in Wigan outside the top 64 on the Players Championship Order of Merit, with the Minehead Finals only weeks away and only a handful of ProTour events left. A first-round loss to Ritchie Edhouse the day before had made the maths even tighter. People on social media were already writing him off for November. He answered by winning the whole thing.
The route to Bunting was not a procession either. Wins over Dylan Slevin and Jeffrey de Graaf got him moving, then a 6-0 whitewash of Adam Lipscombe looked routine. Adam Hunt then led him 3-0. Littler replied with a four-leg burst, including three straight ton-plus checkouts and a 10-darter to close it. Rhys Griffin took him to 3-1 down in the last eight. Five legs on the spin fixed that. Coming from behind was not a slogan on Wednesday. It was the pattern of the day.
Against Bunting the match had real quality. The Bullet is nobody’s soft semi-final, and both men were scoring heavily. The 164 put Littler in control. The 97 finished the job in the most Luke Littler way possible: technically clean, completely unnecessary in its styling, and funny enough that the beaten man could not stay annoyed. Outer bull for 25, then two double 18s. Most players would have taken the simpler path and moved on. He chose the version that made the room laugh.
Then came the final. Dennie Olde Kalter, a 33-year-old ranked 140th who had qualified through Q-School, had already beaten Nathan Aspinall and Jermaine Wattimena to reach his first PDC final. He even broke throw in the opening leg. Littler won the next four in a hurry, including a 152 checkout, and never really let the Dutchman back in. The score finished 8-2. Littler’s average was 110.73. He hit ten 180s and three ton-plus checkouts. Olde Kalter still managed 97.35 and can look back on a brilliant week, but the gap in maximums told the story: ten to two.
The £15,000 winner’s cheque lifted Littler to 34th on the Players Championship Order of Merit and locked his place at the Finals in Minehead on 21-23 November. It is his fourth Players Championship title and his first of 2025. Last year he reached the final in Minehead and lost to Luke Humphries. A second appearance, this time with a floor title already banked, changes the mood around his trip to Somerset.
Afterwards he was typically blunt with PDC.tv. “I’m really happy to come away with a win. I’m a bit angry it was only a 15-darter to finish with, because I knew my average felt really good. At the start of the day it was just about getting through the early stages, and you need to believe in yourself. I know I’ve got the capabilities to come from behind in matches and that’s what I did yet again today. Trying to qualify for Minehead was at the back of my mind. I had seen some people on social media say I wasn’t going to make it, but I’m very happy with the way I played today.”
That middle line is the one that sticks. He was irritated the title leg was a 15-darter. Not relieved. Irritated. When your average is sitting around 111 and you have already thrown ten maximums, a tidy finish feels like leaving something on the table. It is a ridiculous standard to set for yourself at 18, and it also explains the Bunting checkout. Once the match is safe, the showman appears. The competitor never really leaves.
Floor events have not always been his happiest hunting ground this season. Limited appearances and that Tuesday exit left the Minehead race closer than a world champion would like. Wednesday fixed the immediate problem and did it with the sort of scoring that makes the rest of the field take notice. An average north of 109 against Bunting and 110.73 in the final is not a player scraping through on reputation. It is a player who turned up angry at the idea of missing out and then played like it.
There is still work if he wants a kinder draw in Minehead. Two more ProTour events are scheduled back in Wigan on 29 and 30 October, and more prize money would improve his seeding. He does not have to play them. The qualification box is ticked. Knowing him, the chance to climb the list will be tempting, especially after a day when the darts felt this good.
Olde Kalter’s run deserves a mention on its own. Losing 25 of 29 opening matches earlier in the year, then beating a stack of compatriots and two established names to reach a final, is the sort of week that keeps players believing in Q-School. He posted a photo with Littler afterwards and sounded content. Runner-up money and a proper scalp list will do that.
The checkout will be the clip that gets replayed. Two double 18s after an outer bull is not the recommended way home on 97, which is exactly why both men cracked up. Bunting could have sulked. Instead he laughed and hugged the kid who had just knocked him out. That tells you something about the respect already sitting between them, and about how obvious the quality was in the room.
Minehead now has its defending runner-up back in the field, carrying a fresh title and a point to prove after the social-media noise. Humphries beat him in last year’s final. A rematch is a long way off and nothing is guaranteed once the board is live. Still, if Littler arrives averaging anything like he did in that Wigan final, the draw just got heavier for everyone else.
The 97 will live on as a bit of fun. The 8-2, the ten 180s, and the climb from outside the top 64 are the bits that actually change November. He said he was happy with the way he played. On those numbers, he should be. Whether the showbiz finishes keep coming, or whether he tightens up once the bigger cheques are on the line, is the part worth arguing about.
Did the double-18 finish cross the line into taking the mick, or was it just a player enjoying a leg he had already won? And does a day like this make him favourite in Minehead, or is one floor title still not enough to call it? Have your say.