Van Veen breaks silence on Littler as Nuke bites back in bust up | Other | Sport

And tensions erupted with both players on a finish – resulting in some angry actions by Littler towards the Dutchman. And speaking to Dutch broadcaster Viaplay, Van Veen revealed what transpired on stage. He said: “I’m on 90 and miss double 15 on the inside, and then I see him cheering towards the crowd. I don’t think that’s normal.

“And then he makes that crying gesture too…He is a great darts player, but today he shows that he is not a good loser. Cheering over an opponent’s miss really annoys me.

“So that’s why I gave him an angry look. That he then misses three darts at a double, that’s his problem.”

Sharing Van Veen’s statement on Instagram, Littler, meanwhile, shrugged off the criticism – simply sharing a string of laughing emojis in a brutal clapback. It was Van Veen’s first week back in the Premier League after having kidney stones removed, and he added: “The last few weeks have been very tough. And to beat Luke Littler now feels really good. The way it happened, that doesn’t really matter to me.”

Speaking on the incident Wayne Mardle told Sky Sports: “I know exactly what happened. Gian van Veen went inside on D15 and Luke was happy about that so kind of gave it the Simon Whitlock ‘well done’.”

Fans were furious at Littler, and they vented on social media: “You shouldn’t do that and as he has done that, Gian has turned around thinking ‘why did you do that’. I can lip read but I won’t repeat what Luke said as I don’t want to hand in my notice. You have got to say that Gian handled it better.”

Another wrote: “Of all people, he tries picking out Gian van Veen, the most innocent and respectful man on tour, what an absolute t***** Luke Littler is.”

“Littler hasn’t covered himself in any glory at all there, behaved like a complete muppet,” a second admitted, while a third shared: “Littler pathetic there, get a grip…” and another added: “Littler has made himself look like a right mug just now.”