{"id":509974,"date":"2026-04-03T02:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/509974\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T02:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:00:12","slug":"luke-littler-in-angry-premier-league-darts-bust-up-after-dramatic-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/509974\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Littler in angry Premier League Darts bust-up after dramatic loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke Littler’s Premier League Darts homecoming came to a premature end as he was defeated by Gian van Veen in Thursday’s quarter-finals in Manchester<\/p>\n

20:50, 02 Apr 2026Updated 21:18, 02 Apr 2026<\/p>\n

\"Luke<\/p>\n

Luke Littler was visually frustrated(Image: Sky Sports)<\/p>\n

Luke Littler erupted in fury in the latter stages of his loss to Gian van Veen in the quarter-finals of Thursday’s Premier League Darts<\/a> in Manchester. The ‘Nuke’ was spotted thrusting his arms into the air before gesturing at the crowd, who in-turn began booing Van Veen.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old returned for the latest leg of the series this week, where he was pitted up against Van Veen in his first game. It came as a repeat of the dramatic World Championship<\/a> final just a matter of months ago, which Littler won 7-1<\/a> at Alexandra Palace.<\/p>\n

However, fortune was not on his side at the AO Arena, as it was Van Veen who raced into a 4-1 lead and in need of just one more set to take the match. Despite digging deep to find his way back into the match, turning the tide to make it 5-5, he fluffed his chance at victory on D7.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘I played against Luke Littler and Phil Taylor – but there’s a better darts star than both’<\/a>READ MORE: Luke Littler responds to German darts fans booing him as anger made clear<\/a><\/p>\n

Van Veen had the opportunity to take it there and then with D15, falling just inside of the mark.<\/p>\n

That ultimately sparked some mean-mugging and heated words between the pair, with Van Veen turning back and looking at Littler<\/a> and the crowd.<\/p>\n

Littler then threw his arms up into the air before gesturing towards a ‘Nuke’ favouring crowd – given he hails from Warrington, a stones throw from Manchester.<\/p>\n

The crowd then started to jeer toward Van Veen.<\/p>\n

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! All the best sports news and much more on our dedicated Facebook page<\/a><\/p>\n

However, their best efforts to put the 23-year-old off his stride bore no fruit, as he checked out to oust Littler from the tournament and advance to the semis.<\/p>\n

As a result of the moment of tension, Littler and Van Veen shared a loose and very brief handshake after the match, before the Englishman applauded the crowd in attendance before exiting stage right while shaking his head and uttering something to himself.<\/p>\n

Van Veen was also spotted pulling a face and shrugging a shoulder as Littler erratically moved past him at speed.<\/p>\n

\"Luke<\/p>\n

Gian van Veen beat Luke Littler 6-5(Image: Sky Sports)<\/p>\n

And fans taking to social media were less than impressed by the two-time world<\/a> champion’s unsporting conduct, venting their grievances online.<\/p>\n

One wrote: “Time the PDC had a word with him about his arrogant behaviour. Won’t dare though will you,” while a second added: “Sore loser…Starts to annoy many people.”<\/p>\n

A third said: “I’m glad van Veen won that after Littler acting the tough guy, then bottling it,” as a fourth argued: “Never seen Littler behave so poorly.”<\/p>\n

As a result of the 6-5 win, Van Veen will now take on Josh Rock in the semi-finals of the event. The Northern Irishman cruised past Jonny Clayton 6-4 in his mirroring quarter-final match, as he continues to impress on the PDC circuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke Littler’s Premier League Darts homecoming came to a premature end as he was defeated by Gian van…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,17322,178506,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-509974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-luke-littler","tag-premier-league-darts","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}