Luke Littler shows true colours after crushing Ryan Searle despite boos | Other | Sport
Luke Littler was again heavily booed at Ally Pally – but showed his character to thrash Ryan Searle 6-1 and reach another World Darts Championship final. And the all-conquering teenager was then quick to praise Searle for his “amazing” tournament despite his opponent’s poor semi-final performance. Littler appeared as if he was in for a real challenge after world No.20 Searle took the opening set. That came after he was loudly jeered during his walkout and the first few legs of the match.
But after going 1-0 down, the reigning champion then won six successive sets to secure another comfortable semi-final victory. It is Littler’s third after a 6-2 win over Rob Cross in 2024 and his 6-1 destruction of Stephen Bunting 12 months ago. The Warrington thrower twice missed nine-darter opportunities, to the disappointment of the Ally Pally crowd, but averaged 105.35 and 10 180s en route to victory.
The Nuke is only the fourth player ever, after Dennis Priestley, Phil Taylor and Anderson, to reach three successive World Championship finals. He said on stage: “Yeah [laughs]. This is crazy. A few boos. A few cheers. But them guys tonight, they’ve been good, a good crowd. Big shoutout to Paddy Power for blurring the signs tonight obviously with Ryan being partially blind in one eye.
“I went 1-0 down, weren’t the happiest, thought I didn’t play that well. Everyone knows I just want to go 1-0 up and get into that lead. I just said to myself ‘You’ll find it.’ Then at 1-1, 2-1, 3-1 and so on, so forward.
“But big shoutout to Ryan. He’s done amazing this tournament, he can be proud. But yeah, we go again tomorrow.”
On his second failed attempt at a nine-darter, Littler added: “Horrible first dart! I should have gone treble 18, double 15. One more game to go. I think these guys want the £60,000 more than me so I’ll try again tomorrow!”
The 18-year-old will face reigning World Youth and European champion Gian van Veen for the Sid Waddell Trophy and the £1million prize tomorrow (Saturday) night. Van Veen defeated Gary Anderson 6-3 in the other semi-final.
And previewing the best-of-13-sets showpiece match, before Van Veen won, Littler continued: “It’s going to be a brilliant game. I don’t mind who I play, they’re both good lads. I think whoever hits the double first wins the match.”
Sky Sports pundit and four-time former PDC World Championship semi-finalist Wayne Mardle reacted: “It was a bit typical of what he [Littler] does! The scoreline is what a lot of people felt it would be. I didn’t expect Ryan Searle to play that poorly. He didn’t get going.
“I know he win the first set but he was still way off Luke Littler’s levels, even in that first set and he didn’t get any better. I know it’s ridiculous but Littler went for nine-darters rather than trying to win legs!
“Over that format, it was a good performance – hard to beat, not just for Searle, but if he plays like that tomorrow, whoever he plays will have their work cut out. You expect him to play like that tomorrow, or maybe even better.
“He doesn’t fold and he wants back-to-back titles. He wants to rewrite his own history and this is part of it.”
