Luke Littler absent from Austrian Darts Open but stars with comeback win over Stephen Bunting at highly regarded Armageddon exhibition

As Mensur Suljovic complained to DartsNews last night about big names deciding to skip tournaments, many of the top Premier League names were at the yearly Armageddon exhibition hosted by MDA in Leicester, including Luke Littler who ended the night victorious.

A tournament which as promoter Matt Ward himself said in an interview came from humble beginnings, it has grown with the rise of darts and is now at the Mattioli Arena which also hosts the World Grand Prix.

Announced often a long time in advance, the top names it seems were either going to need a mad dash to Graz post this exhibition or always planned to skip it anyway.

Littler played multiple matches including the showpiece as he saw off Stephen Bunting coming from 6-2 down to prevail 8-7 to win the George Pallett Trophy. He also defeated young star Kye Courtney with a 12-darter sealing it in one leg.

Also wins on the night for Simon Whitlock defeating Scott Brookes, Bunting defeated Kyle GIlding 2-0 while Nathan Aspinall prevailed over Andy Courtney 3-1. Adrian Lewis also defeated Chris Wickenden and ended the night singing Angels on stage.

Nathan Aspinall also had a WWE style mystery opponent as under a hood was Gerwyn Price who also isn't in Graz this weekend and he played him winning 5-1.

As ever also there were multiple local games with Andy Hibbert defeating Chris Wickenden, Harry Ward became the 'Swadlingoat' defeating Ricky Sudale. While Charlie Marshall saw off Pete Burgoyne. Dubbed the biggest tournament not held by the PDC in the UK and while it does perhaps raise questions about the top names after Suljovic's comments, it is always one with a stacked line-up and saw the big names at the fore.