"Obviously, the Germans musn’t like us English" - Luke Littler reflects on PDC's crowd troubles over recent weeks

Luke Littler reached the semi-finals on Night Ten of the Premier League Darts in Manchester last night. Before the action got underway, he took a moment to address an incident from the previous round in Berlin.

Littler was booed throughout that night, and he didn’t take it well. He visibly showed his frustration multiple times and left the stage looking annoyed after a 6-2 quarter-final defeat to Chris Dobey. “I had a little headloss moment, as some of us players do," he admitted to Oche180. "I just don’t get it and I can’t explain it. Obviously you do your walk-on but then as soon as I got on stage I started getting booed."

There were more crowd issues at the International Darts Open in Riesa, Germany, over the weekend, with plenty of boos echoing around the venue. Nathan Aspinall also reached his limit — in his post-match interview on stage, he hit out at the fans, saying he couldn’t understand why players were being jeered so relentlessly.

Littler, for his part, sees a theme with the German crowds. “I got booed in Hildesheim last year against Peter Wright on the European Tour. I was flying and then they started booing me and I lost. Even when I went one-nil up, they still didn’t like it. He then went 5-1 up and, yeah, one of them moments," he recalls.

Littler does realize though that he will just have to accept it. “It’s something we’ve all got to deal with. For myself, obviously, there are certain people in the crowd who aim it at certain players. Me and Luke Humphries, we get it quite a lot. Obviously, the Germans musn’t like us English,” said the 18-year-old Englishman.

On Night Ten in Manchester, Littler had the crowd very much on his side, but 'The Nuke' fell short of claiming what would have been his fifth weekly win of the Premier League season — a feat that would have set a new record. Littler lost 6-4 to Luke Humphries in the semi-finals, but he still sits comfortably at the top of the league table.