Sad news as Luke Littler falls short but darts keeps hitting the target in Dublin
Luke Littler falls short but darts keeps hitting the target in Dublin
Luke Littler didn’t bring his best, going down 6-4 in his opening quarter-final to Michael Smith
DARTS ON THE RISE: Luke Littler fell short going down 6-4 in his opening quarter-final to Michael Smith. Pic: ©INPHO/Tom Maher
The party started at the Black Horse Luas stop. Well, one branch of it did. Two young lads dressed as what, after some initial confusion, turned out to be seagulls clambered giddily on board. Three more joined them at Goldenbridge.
“We just look silly now,” one of the originals laughed.
The odd grinch furrowed a brow. Most of the curious commuters smiled at this unexpected injection of gaiety and daftness as the rush-hour tram swept towards the grey and wet city centre on an otherwise random Thursday evening.
The seagulls serenaded a guy in handcuffs when the doors opened at Busáras as three Gardaí escorted him to Store Street station. “Oi, oi, oi,” they chorused with darts’ earworm signature tune. The man responded with a chuffed smile and a skip. Even the cops grinned.
Just another day at the darts.
Characters were two-a-penny by the time the thing made The Point. Fred Flintstone and the Super Marios were in one queue, Batman and some Mexican banditos in another. Peter Wright style tricolour mohawks were selling like overpriced pints.
There were fans at last night’s Premier League Darts (PLD) event from all corners and posts. There was a Superman from Coolock, a Freddie Mercury from the Netherlands and a kid from Rochestown in Cork dressed as a darts board.
You might think this is the ‘Luke Littler Effect’. It’s not.
The sight of one boy lifting his new Littler shirt (price €70) over his head seemed to confirm at least one recent covert. Not so, said his mum. “We’ve been watching the darts for ages, really,” she shrugged.
Tickets for this went on sale last October and they got snapped up in jig time, days. Littler’s breakout moment in the PDC World Championships at the Ally Pally was still a good two months away at the time.
Truth is that the PDC began to notice a serious spread beyond their usual borders on the back of the 2023 World final between Michael Smith and Michael van Gerwen when Smith nailed a nine-darter to claim a leg described as the best ever.
Wayne Mardle’s commentary – “I can’t speak! I can’t speak!” – went viral and, with Fallon Sherrock having already broken new ground into the sporting mainstream, it all seemed to elevate the game to a new level after a period that already showed strong growth.
This is the 20th year of the PLD and it is unrecognisable now from the concept that started out. The first edition kicked off in Stoke-on-Trent, at a venue restricted to less than 800 souls, and passed through backwaters like Carlisle, Colchester, Taunton and Plymouth.
The tour now has expanded to Scotland, Wales, Rotterdam and Berlin. London’s O2, the venue for the finals, holds over 20,000. That’s twice the crowd as Manchester’s G-Mex back in 2005. Dublin was added to the staging posts in 2012.
The 3Arena was still the O2 when 9,000 punters paid in to watch Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Gary Anderson and the rest open that first show, and the man who went by ‘The Power’ was duly impressed after his 8-2 win over James Wade.
“It’s been an amazing night,” said Taylor at the time. “The atmosphere was incredible and it’s been like a rock concert from start to finish, it was a great buzz. When you first walk out it’s awesome. I felt a bit like Russell Crowe in the film ‘Gladiator’.”
Van Barneveld, who by then had won at least 20 titles that included five world crowns of one hue or another, described it as “one of the best nights of my career”. If that feels like there was a lily being gilded then only covid has slowed its success here since.
This is the sort of fertile ground that Littler has found since he burst the banks of his sport over the festive period and 3.7 million people, two million more than ever before, tuned in to that World final against Luke Humphries.
It felt last night like most of the punters knew their Shanghais from their Robinhoods before the man-boy from Warrington started turning heads, but there was no sign of sniffiness when the teen sensation was roared onto the stage.
He didn’t bring his best, going down 6-4 in his opening quarter-final to Michael Smith who was one of six world champions on stage here. Littler will be back. So will thousands of those who paid €38 for over three hours of perfectly-packaged entertainment.
