{"id":222761,"date":"2026-01-02T03:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T03:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/222761\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T03:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T03:16:07","slug":"luke-littler-hails-crowd-after-cruising-into-last-four-of-world-darts-championship-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/222761\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Littler hails crowd after cruising into last four of World Darts Championship \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke Littler<\/a> enjoyed the perfect evening at the World Darts Championship<\/a> as he got the Alexandra Palace crowd back on side en route to the semi-final and then saw biggest rival Luke Humphries crash out.<\/p>\n

Littler was booed heavily during his fourth-round win over Rob Cross and antagonised the baying fans further when he crassly thanked them for paying for his substantial prize money.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old defending champion said he was \u201cexpecting the worst\u201d for his quarter-final tie with Krzysztof Ratajski but had them in the palm of his hand after a virtuoso display, which saw him cruise to a 5-0 win.<\/p>\n

He then watched his great rival \u2013 and biggest threat for the title \u2013 Humphries lose 5-1 to Gian van Veen, making him an overwhelming favourite to become the back-to-back champion.<\/p>\n

Although there were some pantomime boos as he walked towards the stage, the overall response was positive and a rendition of \u2018There\u2019s only one Luke Littler\u2019 before the match started put his mind at ease.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a new year, so there\u2019s a new crowd, he said. \u201cA few boos here and there but as soon as I got on stage the crowd were absolutely unbelievable. Leading up to it my family and friends were like, \u2018whatever happens, happens\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I got on stage, I clapped everyone so they knew I wanted them on my side again. They were on my side tonight and I got the job done.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it makes an impact. I am growing as a player mentally, I know how to deal with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rob Cross game definitely tested me and in future games I will know how to deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teenager deserves the adulation as he looks on an unstoppable course to becoming the first man to retain the World Championship since Gary Anderson 10 years ago.<\/p>\n

Few can live with him and the scary thought for the rest of the field is that Littler has more gears to find ahead of his last-four date with Ryan Searle.<\/p>\n

Van Veen could well be the man who has the best chance of downing Littler after he trounced Humphries 5-1.<\/p>\n

The 2024 champion had vowed to go to war with Littler in a bid to regain the world title and the world number one spot but he will not even get a chance to lay a glove on him.<\/p>\n

\"GianGian van Veen of Netherlands celebrates his victory against Luke Humphries of England. Photograph: Warren Little\/Getty <\/p>\n

He did not account for coming up against an inspired Dutchman, who averaged 105.41, hit 11 180s and followed Littler in taking out a \u2018Big Fish\u2019 170 checkout.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis smile won\u2019t go off in the next 24 hours. I am so over the moon, I felt really good. It is indescribable,\u201d he said on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuke is a fantastic player and whenever I play him we all know we need to play at our best to beat him and that\u2019s what I did today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Veen will next play Gary Anderson who returned to the semi-finals for the first time in four years after ending Justin Hood\u2019s dream debut run.<\/p>\n

The 55-year-old is enjoying a renaissance and is now just two wins away from lifting a third world title, 10 years after his last.<\/p>\n

If he can do so, he would become the oldest player to lift the PDC world title and join Michael van Gerwen in second place in the all-time list of champions.<\/p>\n

After beating Van Gerwen on Tuesday night, Anderson looked every bit a potential champion as he dispatched Hood 5-2.<\/p>\n

The Scot will now meet Luke Humphries or Gian van Veen in Friday\u2019s semi-final, which will be his eighth last-four encounter at Ally Pally.<\/p>\n

Littler\u2019s opponent Searle had not dropped a set in reaching the last eight and again showed his class in a 5-2 victory over number five seed Jonny Clayton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke Littler enjoyed the perfect evening at the World Darts Championship as he got the Alexandra Palace crowd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[115015,115013,42,115014,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-222761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-darts-results","9":"tag-gary-anderson","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-justin-hood","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}