Wikipedia now lists it as a 10–9 last-16, so the piece will use that score, the averages, and the two portraits. **Littler survives Aspinall fightback to book last-eight spot in Amsterdam** There are nights in darts when the result looks simple on a graphic and feels anything but simple in the building. Saturday at AFAS … Read more
Six match darts. One home crowd. A defending champion who had already dragged himself off the floor. And still Michael van Gerwen walked off the AFAS Live stage on Thursday night with that look fans know too well. He had just blown a 5-3 lead against Daryl Gurney and lost 6-5 in the first round … Read more
Danny Noppert hit a good score, turned, and celebrated right in Luke Littler’s face. That is the flashpoint that turned a first-round match in Amsterdam into something sharper than a 6-4 scoreline. The AFAS Live was already on Littler. Boos. Whistles. A home crowd treating the world number one like the villain of the night. … Read more
The AFAS Live did not want Luke Littler on Saturday. From the first dart, Amsterdam treated the world number one like an away player. Boos. Whistles. A wall of noise every time he stepped to the oche. Danny Noppert, the local favourite and former UK Open champion, fed off it and jumped 3-1 up after … Read more
Littler vs Aspinall: Another English Clash After a Hostile Night in Amsterdam Luke Littler does not get much time to recover. Less than 24 hours after grinding past Danny Noppert in front of a hostile Amsterdam crowd, the world number one returns to the AFAS Live stage tonight to face Nathan Aspinall. The second-round match … Read more
Booed From the First Dart: Littler vs a Hostile Amsterdam Crowd Luke Littler walked into AFAS Live on Friday night knowing what was coming. The World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam has become one of the more difficult rooms for the teenage world champion. Last year the Dutch crowd turned on him in the … Read more
When Celebration Crosses the Line: Noppert’s Eyeline Cheer and Apology to Littler Professional darts is a game of millimetres, mental toughness and unwritten etiquette. On Friday night in Amsterdam those lines blurred for a moment. Danny Noppert, the experienced Dutchman, celebrated a big score directly in Luke Littler’s eyeline. Seconds later he offered an apology. … Read more
Luke Littler is still standing. In Amsterdam on Friday night he beat Danny Noppert 6-4 at the World Series of Darts Finals and kept the clean-sweep talk alive for another round. It was not a demolition. It was a first-round grind at AFAS Live, the kind of match that tells you more than a 6-1 … Read more
Phil Taylor once looked untouchable. Sixteen world titles. Sixteen World Matchplays. A run of nine successive majors that felt like it belonged to another planet. Luke Littler is 19 years old and five tournaments away from doing something The Power never managed. That is not hype. That is the calendar staring him in the face. … Read more
Luke Humphries will stand in Luke Littler’s corner as a teammate. He will not stand there as a passenger. That is the line Cool Hand has drawn around the most outrageous season in modern darts. Littler is chasing a clean sweep of the televised majors. Humphries has already said he does not want it handed … Read more