Sport Darts World Cup
Luke Littler writes the second chapter of the Ally Pally fairy tale
As of: 10:11 p.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes
Second World Cup match, second win: Luke Littler also won against the first seeded player
Source: dpa/Zac Goodwin
The big story of this Darts World Championship continues after Christmas. Luke Littler also won his second world championship match. The 16-year-old defeated Andrew Gilding, who couldn’t have believed his eyes after the first set.
Andrew Gilding couldn’t have believed his eyes when he returned to the stage from the first break of his second round match at the World Darts Championship. Luke Littler, his opponent, stood up there, threw a few arrows and sang along to the music playing from the hall speakers: “Rockin all over the world”. The status quo on the scoreboard: 1-0 for Luke Littler, who also won the fourth World Cup set of his life.
As a result, nothing changed in the good mood of the 16-year-old debutant. In the end it was 3-1 for the young Englishman. Littler lost eight legs against number 20 in the Order of Merit. But the second chapter of the fairy tale was written.
The evening before, Littler had made the most memorable debut in World Cup history. In the 3-0 win against Christian Kist he only gave up two legs, played an average of 106.12 points and threw seven 180s. In the end, his Dutch opponent could be happy that he had the best spectator seat at Alexandra Palace for this historic darts demonstration.
The new face of darts: Luke Littler
Quelle: Getty Images/Tom Dulat
Even against Kist, Littler simply stayed on stage during the first break, and this time he even sang. And in other respects, against Gilding, he resolutely continued where he had left off 24 hours earlier. Although he narrowly missed a 112 on the bullseye and conceded the break, he immediately regained the loss of serve and with it the set.
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In the second round he missed two break darts and had to go to the decider. Since UK Open champion Gilding missed two set darts on the double 8, Littler had the chance with 48 points remaining. “The Nuke”, the atomic bomb, checked with the last dart – and exploded. A punched fist, a loud shout of joy, a bright red head – joy and relief had to come out. The second break offered an opportunity to equalize the pressure.
Littler now against Campbell
Gilding won the third set 3-0. “Goldfinger” had an average of 95.24 points and a 64 percent success rate on the doubles. A strong performance that he couldn’t maintain long enough to continue to stand up to the junior world champion. Littler experienced his first acid test – and passed it thanks to mistakes from Gilding.
In the fourth set, “The Nuke” kept tapping his forehead, but both players now showed nerves when it came to the checkout. Littler missed five darts in a row in the first leg – and still took the 1-0 lead. In the second, three arrows flew past – this time Gilding punished him. Despite five errors on doubles, the third leg went to Littler, who then ended the match with his own throw on double 10. His average ended up being 92.65 points, and the double rate fell to 26 percent in the fourth set.
“Last night it was about performance, today it was about winning,” Sky commentator Wayne Mardle summed it up well. Littler felt the same way: “I got there, I did it.”
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And “The Nuke” could now significantly increase its effectiveness in its first World Cup. In the third round, Canadian outsider Matt Campbell will be waiting instead of James Wade, and in the round of 16 Littler could face a generational duel with the six-time world champion Raymond van Barneveld, who is 40 years older. After Wade and Peter Wright were eliminated at the start, the first player from the top 8 would wait until Gerwyn Price in the quarter-finals.
Darts World Cup, results on December 21st.
1 round:
Mickey Mansell (NIR) – Xiaochen Zong (CHI) 3:0 (3:2; 3:0; 3:1)
Luke Woodhouse (ENG) – Berry van Peer (NED) 2:3 (2:3; 3:2; 1:3; 3:2; 0:3)
2nd round:
Madars Razma (LAT/32) – Mike De Decker (BEL) 3:1 (3:0; 1:3; 3:2; 3:2)
Rob Cross (ENG/8) – Thibault Tricole (FRA) 3:0 (3:0; 3:2; 3:0)
Andrew Gilding (ENG/20) – Luke Littler (ENG) 1:3 (2:3; 2:3; 3:0; 1:3)
Danny Noppert (NED/7) – Scott Williams (ENG) 0:3 (2:3; 2:3; 1:3)
Gabriel Clemens (D/22) – Man Lok Leung (HKG)
Damon Heta (AUS/10) – Martin Lukeman (ENG)
Darts World Cup, schedule for December 22nd
2nd round (from 1.30 p.m.):
Brendan Dolan (NIR/28) – Mickey Mansell (NIR)
José de Sousa (POR/25) –Jeffrey de Graaf (SWE)
Krzysztof Ratajski (POL/24) – Jamie Hughes (ENG)
Dirk van Duijvenbode (NED/12) – Boris Krcmar (CRO)
2nd round (from 8 p.m.):
Dimitri Van den Bergh (BEL/15) – Florian Hempel (D)
Martin Schindler (D/26) – Jermaine Wattimena (NED)
Raymond van Barneveld (NED/29) – Radek Szaganski (POL)
Chris Dobey (ENG/17) – William O‘Connor (IRL)
