Schedule Saturday night at World Darts Championship including Raymond van Barneveld vs Luke Littler

The last darts night of the year is upon us, and what a night it is. Eyes will be massively focused Saturday night on the clash between Raymond van Barneveld and Luke Littler.

Ever since the elimination of Peter Wright in the second round, there have been cautious dreams about this possible battle. It is arguably the tie of the round as five-time world champion Van Barneveld, with forty years of darts experience, takes on the darting wonderkid of sixteen years who is believed to have a very big future.

Littler has earned that expectation all by himself with his blistering performances. Already at the age of 14, the Englishman managed to win an open tournament on the WDF circuit and in 2022 he also qualified for Lakeside. That same year, Littler also threw a nine-darter during a stream tournament on the JDC circuit. At the JDC (association for talents up to seventeen years old), Littler is already a two-time world champion. At the PDC, youth players up to age 24 can compete in the youth world championship, and there Littler is now the reigning youth world champion. In his debut year on the PDC Development Tour, Littler already managed to win five tournaments. 

Through the Development Tour, Littler qualified for the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace. There he made a brilliant entrance by beating Christian Kist 3-0 in sets thanks to an average of 106. Then Andrew Gilding (3-1) and Matt Campbell (4-1) also had to bow to Littler.

Van Barneveld started this tournament reborn, with a new set of arrows made especially for him by his supplier Target. According to the 56-year-old Hague native, he finally found the right set-up after years of searching.

The five-time world champion underlined that with an excellent first game against Radek Szaganski. The Dutch darts pioneer won that match 3-1 thanks to an average of almost one hundred. However, the decline was considerable in his second game against Jim Williams. 'Barney' recorded only 89 average in that match, but still won 4-1 because Williams missed many doubles. The match against Littler will show whether that was a one-time slump.

Prior to the World Darts Championship, hopes were high for a fourth-round encounter between Gerwyn Price and Gary Anderson. Anderson did his part, but Price stumbled over Dolan in the third round. And so the Northern Irishman takes on 'The Flying Scotsman'. Dolan could reach the last eight at the World Darts Championship for the second time in his career, something Anderson has done no fewer than nine times at the PDC. 

Pre-tournament favourite Luke Humphries and Joe Cullen form the last major darts match of 2023. Humphries skimmed past the brink in his previous match against Ricardo Pietreczko, but 'Cool Hand Luke' managed to turn a 1-3 deficit into a hard-fought 4-3 victory. Cullen defeated Ryan Searle 4-2 to join the last sixteen. Of the ten previous encounters, the two Englishmen both managed to win five. However, Humphries did win five of the last seven duels between them.

Brendan Dolan v Gary Anderson

Raymond van Barneveld v Luke Littler

Luke Humphries v Joe Cullen