April 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\nThe pair exchanged a brief handshake, but Van Veen was unhappy with the world number one, telling Sky Sports: “I missed the double 15 and I looked around, and I was fuming with myself that I missed, and I looked around and he was celebrating that I missed. That was out of order. I was fuming about that.<\/p>\n
“I love Luke to bits, he\u2019s a fantastic player and guy for the sport and to see all the attention he\u2019s brought to it is phenomenal, but this is also part of it as well and today was my day.”<\/p>\n
Littler took to Instagram in response, posting quotes from Van Veen accompanied by three crying-with-laughter emojis.<\/p>\n
After a slow start to the season, Littler had surged to the top of the standings with back-to-back victories in Dublin and Berlin.<\/p>\n
Van Veen had not won a match since week four of the competition and is still recovering from the kidney stones that forced him to sit out Dublin.<\/p>\n
But he served notice of his intent with a bullseye to seal a 128 checkout for a break of throw in the third leg and just missed a double five that would have opened up a 5-1 lead.<\/p>\n
Littler recovered to 4-3 and it appeared Van Veen\u2019s chance might have gone when he failed to land a double for the match at 5-3.<\/p>\n
Back came the world champion to level, but for once he could not find the answers when it came to the crunch.<\/p>\n
Van Veen put the confrontation behind him with another excellent performance to beat Josh Rock 6-3 in the semi-finals but lost out to an inspired Gerwyn Price 6-2 in the final.<\/p>\n
The Welshman had previously beaten Luke Humphries and Stephen Bunting by the same scoreline and is up to second in the table, two points behind Littler.<\/p>\n
Price imitated Littler\u2019s fishing celebration when he took out a 170 checkout in the third leg against Bunting and he said afterwards: “Just a bit of fun, nothing too out of order I don\u2019t think.”<\/p>\n
Price had sympathy for Littler regarding his reaction to Van Veen, saying: “Things like this happen in darts. I\u2019m sure in a couple of weeks it\u2019ll be done and dusted.<\/p>\n
“Emotions are up and down and people get hyped up. I\u2019ve been there, the backlash off it. Probably Luke will have a little bit of it. I feel for the kid at the minute.”<\/p>\n