Luke Littler shows true colours in response to furious interview | Other | Sport
Luke Littler has confessed to losing his head after being booed by the Alexandra Palace crowd, promising a different reaction in future. The teenager advanced to the quarter-finals of the World Darts Championship with a 4-2 victory over Rob Cross on Monday night, but it was his reaction to the crowd that stole the headlines.
The 18-year-old had previously been a crowd favourite in north London, but his rise to become the world No. 1 and defending champion has shifted perceptions. He faced boos from sections of the audience on Monday, with underdog Cross receiving their support.
Littler responded to the charged atmosphere by shouting “now what?” after landing crucial darts. His post-match interview with Sky Sports on stage did little to improve the situation.
“I’m not bothered, I’m not bothered, really I’m not bothered,” he declared. “Can I just say one thing. You guys pay for tickets and you pay for my prize money so thank you for my money, thank you for booing me!”
By the time he reached the post-match press conference, he had a chance to calm down. Littler admitted that his average score of 106.5 didn’t feel accurate due to the “adrenaline, emotion and anger” coursing through him.
“I think I lost it, I think it’s still on there!” he quipped when asked about the possibility of completely losing his temper on stage.
“The fans have done what they done and I’ve reacted as any other player would really. Think I might have reacted a bit early on after that first set and when I came on for the second set and they were still at it I said to myself, ‘you’ve done it a bit too early here’.
“But I just had to get on with the job and when I went 3-1 up I felt like I was really in it. Rob found his feet but I just had to get rid of him.”
When questioned whether he was drawing energy from the crowd, Littler responded: “Obviously it wasn’t really at the front of my mind, but they want the underdog to win, or for the game to go on even longer than it should do. But it definitely fuelled me up and I definitely played better, so we’ll just have to see what happened on New Year’s Day.”
Asked what sparked his outburst, he continued: “The fans. Obviously I gave it a little bit with a few check-outs throughout the game. But I kept telling myself to leave everything until that last dart goes in.”
Littler is set to face either Luke Woodhouse or Krzysztof Ratajski in his next match on New Year’s Day, with a potential semi-final clash against Ryan Searle or Jonny Clayton before a possible showdown with long-standing rival Luke Humphries in the final.
