Luke Littler responds to Premier League Darts boos after latest loss | Other | Sport

Luke Littler could not help but respond to boos and jeers from the Belfast crowd on night 4 of the Premier League in his quarter-final defeat to Jonny Clayton. Upon finally hitting double 20 after several misses, Littler opted to stretch his arms out before doing a ‘calm down’ motion to those getting particularly loud for his throws after he urged more noise for an earlier dart.

Littler has thus far struggled in the Premier League with a BYE in the previous week seeing him through to the semi-finals. He was, however, comprehensively beaten by Clayton at that stage on the latter’s way to winning night 3.

Away from the Premier League, the world champion is finding much more joy, as evidenced by his Poland Darts Open title victory this weekend. Despite his opponent, Gian van Veen, hitting a stunning nine-darter, Littler won 8-4 in legs to claim the £35,000 first prize.

He is not faring so well against Clayton, though, with the Welshman, who leads the Premier League, putting in a superb performance with a sensational 156 checkout as his highlight. Littler fought back and enjoyed more back-and-forths with the Belfast crowd, but could not recover and was ultimately beaten 6-3.

The two shared brief words upon Clayton’s triumph before Littler headed off the stage and for the third time out of four nights, that will be his only appearance there. Littler lost to Van Veen in the quarter-final of night one before losing at the semi-final stage the following Thursday to Michael van Gerwen.

The latter has reached the final twice already this season, winning one and losing the other, but he was not present last week in Glasgow due to illness. He pulled out of several other scheduled tournaments but is set to make his return to the oche this evening, where he first faces Gerwyn Price.

Van Veen against Josh Rock, who will be backed by the home crowd, is the last quarter-final of the night. Following Clayton’s win, it was another shock result as Luke Humphries was beaten by Stephen Bunting in the next quarter-final, and thus he advances to the semi-finals, where he is set to face Clayton.

That meant both Littler and Humphries, the two who competed in the final last year, were out at the first time of asking. That has thus far been the unpredictable nature of the 2026 Premier League