Luke Littler hasn’t spoken to Gian van Veen 3 weeks after darts row | Other | Sport

Luke Littler has admitted he has yet to reach out to Gian van Veen in a bid to resolve their heated bust-up. The pair clashed on night nine of the Premier League Darts in Manchester three weeks ago. Van Veen claimed a contentious victory against the two-time world champion, with the Dutchman accusing Littler of ‘celebrating towards the crowd’ when he missed key darts.

Relations between the two have remained decidedly icy ever since. Speaking following his night 12 triumph, Littler revealed the pair are still not on speaking terms. “No, we have not spoken, but I’m not the type of person to go up and talk to him or something like that,” he said. “Maybe he is waiting for me to go and talk to him, but I’m not the type of person.

“Even in the practice room, people will talk to me first. I am not the type of person to be chatting away.”

“We can obviously settle it on the dartboard. In the back room it has just been normal. It has just been the same preparation-wise. I think he’s forgotten about it. I forgot about it. If I need to talk to him, then I will.

“I don’t regret anything. Obviously, I had my opinion, he has got his opinion, so we are all entitled to it.

“I think we have both moved on with our game on stage, but off stage, obviously, we’ve not spoken. But yeah, I’m sure we will.”

Littler faced yet another hostile reception this week as he clinched victory in Liverpool. However, he insists it paled in comparison to the jeering he endured in Rotterdam earlier this month.

He added: “It is what it is [crowd booing]. I’ve won and we move on to next week. Rotterdam was way louder than this tonight. This week was nothing compared to last week.

“But I’ve just got to forget about it. I was focused, I definitely wanted to win tonight and that’s what I’ve done.

“I even proved to people last week that I can win games under those circumstances and I’ve done it again. There is no anxiety there. I just expect the worst but it was not worse than Rotterdam.

“That is the worst I have experienced. It is good to come through those games under those circumstances.”

The Premier League returns to action next week in Aberdeen. Littler will go head-to-head with Josh Rock in the quarter-finals, while Van Veen is set to face off against Jonny Clayton.