![\"Luke](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0023b074-614.jpg\"\/)
\nRyan Searle was unable to get to grips with the reigning champion<\/p>\n
A marauding Luke Littler is just one win away from a historic defence of the World Championship title after bulldozing his way to another final where he will meet rising Dutch star Gian van Veen.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old looks like an unstoppable force as he demolished Ryan Searle 6-1 in the last four, stretching his unbeaten run on the Alexandra Palace stage to 12 matches and counting.<\/p>\n
Victory also means Littler has reached the final all three times he has entered the competition, and is within touching distance of becoming the first man to win back-to-back titles since Gary Anderson a decade ago.<\/p>\n
Victory cements Littler’s position as one of the giants of the game and few would back against him lifting the Sid Waddell Trophy for a second time in 24 hours.<\/p>\n
It will take something special to stop him as he looks unbeatable over a longer format.<\/p>\n
He averaged 105.35, hit 10 180s and took out 59% of his doubles, amid a stretch of 11 successive wins, and there was still a strong sense that there was more to come from the audacious teenager.<\/p>\n
His only disappointment was his failure to land a nine-dart finish, an insatiable itch that he has been so far unable to scratch.<\/p>\n
He twice came close in the sixth set, with seven perfect darts in a leg he ended up losing after Searle took out a ‘Big Fish’ 170 checkout.<\/p>\n
\nRyan Searle was unable to get to grips with the reigning champion<\/p>\n
Littler ends what has been a career-best run by Searle, who moves up to a new high ranking of number eight.<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old’s performance has been made even more impressive by his recent revelation that he suffers from Autosomal Dominant Optic Atrophy – an eye condition which means he often cannot see where the dart lands.<\/p>\n
That did not hold him back and he dropped just two sets on the way to the last four.<\/p>\n
But then he came up against a different proposition in Littler, who produced a masterful performance to reach a third successive final.<\/p>\n
“This is crazy. A few boos, a few cheers, but the crowd tonight have been good,” Littler said on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
“I went 1-0 down, I wasn’t the happiest, I thought I didn’t play that well. Everyone knows I want to go 1-0 up, I want to get into the feel.<\/p>\n
“I told myself I’d find it.<\/p>\n
“Big shout to Ryan, he has done amazing this tournament, he can be proud.<\/p>\n
“(The second semi-final) is going to be a brilliant game, I don’t mind who I play, both excellent lads. Whoever hits the double first will win the match.”<\/p>\n
![\"Gian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0023b086-614.jpg\"\/)
\nGian van Veen will go into the final as the underdog<\/p>\n
Van Veen reached his first final after winning an instant classic against two-time champion Anderson in a see-saw match that finished just before 11pm.<\/p>\n
Although Van Veen won 6-3 that does not tell the story of a thrilling tussle that could have gone either way.<\/p>\n
Both men averaged over 102, they both took out a 170 finish and Anderson hit more 180s, but it was Van Veen’s finishing which got the job done.<\/p>\n
For significant periods of the match Van Veen, who has enjoyed a breakthrough year and is the new world number three, produced the standard which could match Littler.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old, who comically won the PDC Youth World Championship in November, is now just one win away from getting his hands on a maiden senior title and following in the footsteps of countrymen Raymond van Barneveld and Michael van Gerwen.<\/p>\n
“I am so happy,” he said on stage. “Winning this game\u2026 10 years ago or five years ago, wherever I was, struggling playing darts.<\/p>\n
“I remember three or four years ago I was in Barnsley in the Metrodome and I was struggling with dartitis. I was crying at the table and look at me four years later. It\u2019s all been worth it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A marauding Luke Littler is just one win away from a historic defence of the World Championship title…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-224513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224513","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=224513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}