Luke Littler left the
World Series of Darts Finals nursing a major hangover. The reigning world champion crashed out 10-4 to Jonny Clayton in Sunday afternoon’s quarter-finals. Alongside his faltering finishing, the strained relationship between Littler and a section of the AFAS Live crowd again took centre stage.
Littler actually started his quarter-final well. The Englishman led 2-1 and both he and Clayton were averaging well above 105 at that point. The Ferret refused to let him get away and levelled at 2-2.
The match initially stayed balanced after that. At 3-3 both players had held throw and the averages hovered around a ton. From there, the pattern flipped completely.
Clayton landed the first break and consolidated for 5-3. Littler did pull one back with a classy 129 checkout, but the gap on the doubles became decisive. Mid-match, Clayton was scoring 54 percent on the outer ring, while Littler converted only 26.67 percent of his chances.
A frustrated Luke Littler suffered a heavy defeat to Jonny Clayton
Frustrations boil over for Littler
Clayton punished every slip. The Welshman broke again for 7-4 and stretched clear to 8-4.
At that score, Littler had two fine openings to respond but couldn’t find double 1. That was the moment the 19-year-old’s frustration visibly spiked. He vented at the board, then turned to the crowd with a sarcastic applause.
Clayton stayed composed. He made it 9-4 and sealed it on tops: 10-4. Across the match, Littler hit just four of his twenty darts at a double.
The defeat also ended his bid for a rare feat. Littler can no longer sweep all the majors this calendar year.
Weekend marred by tension around Littler
Littler’s irritation did not come out of nowhere. Throughout the weekend he repeatedly clashed with a section of the crowd.
On Friday, during his match against Danny Noppert, he was met with boos. Littler responded by cupping his ears, goading the fans. Noppert later apologised after exuberantly celebrating a 180 as he walked close by Littler.
A day later, issues flared again in Littler’s match with Nathan Aspinall. There was whistling while the world champion was on throw, prompting the referee to halt play and address the arena. Littler did survive that night, edging Aspinall 10-9.
Afterwards, he made clear his patience with the Dutch crowd was wearing thin. Littler even threatened to skip future European Tour events in the Netherlands. "But yeah, if the Dutch stay like this, then I'm not going to do any Euro Tours over there. There's just no point in me travelling, wasting my time whilst I'm getting booed," he said to Online Darts.