I was at The O2 and saw Luke Littler do something completely out of character vs Humphries | Other | Sport

Luke Littler let one usually reliable part of his game slip on Thursday night. The warning signs were there in his semi-final win over Gerwyn Price, which required a late surge to get over the line. And although Littler had the luxury of a backstage rest while Luke Humphries scrapped it out with Nathan Aspinall for the right to face him, he still couldn’t iron out a nagging problem in time to stop ‘Cool Hand’ pinching his Premier League Darts crown.

It is tricky to find weak points in a player who shot up to second in the world rankings at an almost unprecedented pace, and cemented himself as one of, if not the singular best player on the planet with a World Darts Championship triumph at the Alexandra Palace in January.

Sure enough, just like how he is able to pepper the big trebles, the outer ring is usually a happy hunting ground for Littler. But it wasn’t on Thursday night, and it cost him dearly.

‘The Nuke’ went into finals night with the best checkout percentage of any Premier League player this season. In fact, his 44.93% hit rate put him more than three percentage points ahead of second-place Rob Cross, and more than 10 ahead of last-place Stephen Bunting.

But Littler didn’t come anywhere near his usual numbers on Thursday. Just watching those performances from the 18-year-old, you could tell something was off even though the scoring stats were still sky high.

Littler averaged 104.64 in his semi-final win over Price, but it still felt like a grind at times. And that’s because he struggled so much at the end of each leg, with his 34.48% checkout rate against ‘The Iceman’ miles less than his season average.

It was a similar story against Humphries. Against his biggest rival, Littler averaged a more than respectable 100.29. But his doubling percentage dropped even further to 29.63%, with eight hits and a staggering 19 misses.

The only reason it wasn’t a complete romp is because Humphries also struggled on the outer ring, with his percentage only marginally higher than Littler’s. When the dust settles, the reigning world champion will rue the fact that a part of his game which is usually so strong completely deserted him when it mattered most.

At least it’s a problem he and Humphries can set about fixing together when they team up for the PDC World Cup of Darts in two weeks’ time.