When Rob Cross left the podium after his defeat in the semi-final of the Darts World Cup against Luke Littler on Tuesday evening, he was probably happy that he had already won the tournament in 2018. Because the way the 16-year-old Littler had handled him before, the competition is afraid that there won’t be too many opportunities to be crowned world champion in the coming years.
Littler’s performance brought back memories of the supremacy of darts grandmaster Phil Taylor, who had dominated the scene so much that he won an incredible eight titles in a row from 1995 to 2002. In a way, Taylor gave a generation of players little chance. And Littler is now expected to have a comparable era of success.
The darts fans chose the teenager, who was currently attracting worldwide attention, as the successor to the super figure Taylor at this early point in his career. People once wrote a song for the record world champion because of his successes. To the tune of the Christmas classic “Winter Wonderland” by Michael Bublé, they constantly bawled when Taylor played that there was only one like him (“There’s only one Phil Taylor”) and that, figuratively speaking, they were in his kingdom (“Walking in the Taylor Wonderland”). This was, of course, the Ally Pally, which sits quite fittingly on a hill in north London as the venue for the World Darts Championship.
In his playing style, gestures and facial expressions, presence and statements, Littler resembles the world champion Taylor
The Taylor song was last played at full volume during his World Cup retirement in 2018, so loud that the farewell interview with the old master on the match podium could not be heard. After that, the song increasingly faded into the background because there was no other Taylor in sight – until Luke Littler became the youngest player ever to make it to the final in his first World Cup participation. To honor this achievement, the old Taylor evergreen was dedicated to him. The name Littler almost miraculously fits into the melody just as smoothly as Taylor. Both names have the same length and, above all, the same number of syllables: the first names are one, the last names are two. So it’s hard to tell whether people are singing about Taylor or Littler.
“There’s only one Phil Taylor”: Until his retirement from the World Cup in 2018, the darts grandmaster had dominated the scene so much that he won eight titles in a row.
(Photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Littler is also similar to the darts grandmaster Taylor in other respects, in the way he plays, his gestures and facial expressions, his presence and his statements. Littler is able to play every segment on the disc comparably well. In the 6:2 after sets in the semi-final against Cross he achieved an average score of 106 per shot, half of the arrows on the double fields that ended a section flew into the target.
Even more than this impressive haul, his playfulness sets him apart from the competition, just like Taylor used to. For example, although Littler could have dealt with the remaining value “36” directly via double 18, he chose the unusual route via single 16 and double 10. Elsewhere, with 182 remaining points, he conjured up a 180 shot from his hand, although the double 1, which is almost never played, is not considered a popular doubles field. And when the youngster prepared the 132 with two throws into the central Bulls Eye and finished with double 16, people were literally knocked out of their seats. They shouted uninhibitedly: “There’s only one Luke Littler!”
Littler’s playful lightness is transferred to his demeanor. Despite his limited professional experience, no one currently knows how to interact with viewers better than him. He recently had cell phones thrown at him so he could take selfies with them from the podium. Earlier in the match he asked if he should throw at the Bulls Eye. The darts crowd cheered – and Littler aimed for the center of the target. He didn’t score, but made up for the missed attempt by smiling at himself. That’s what he did when he initially looked for his rhythm against Cross.
The new world number one Humphries humbly declares that he has to play the game of his life against Littler
With this nonchalance, the youngster serves people’s desire to be entertained by more than just good dart throws. Compared to his much older colleagues, Littler seems far less stubborn; he doesn’t celebrate his set wins exuberantly with clenched fists, but rather with spontaneous and natural head and hand movements. Through the involvement of the spectators, which Taylor has characterized over the years, the Englishman has secured immense popularity within this one World Cup. He is both an attraction and a crowd favorite at Ally Pally.
This became noticeable and visible on Tuesday evening at the semi-final, when the mood after Littler’s match in the second semi-final dropped significantly, as if the lights had suddenly been switched on in a discotheque. The ranks were still occupied. As a result, the clear victory of the new world number one Luke Humphries against Scott Williams, a smooth 6-0, went almost unnoticed. Despite his impressive performance, Humphries later declared with astonishing humility that he would have to play the game of his life to win in the final against Littler on Wednesday (9pm).
Given his age, this very meaningful sentence would generally be prescribed for Littler, the sixteen-year-old. Instead, he casually remarked that “nothing had been really difficult” for him in the tournament so far. A few sentences were tight, but he believes in his abilities. A reporter recently asked Littler when he last lost a game. “A singles game?” Littler asked back: “I don’t know, maybe at an event in Gibraltar in October.” In general, he emphasized that he had not lost many games in his career. So he doesn’t really know the feeling of defeat. His answers embody Taylor’s habitus, who expressed himself in a similarly flirtatious manner at the time.
At the start of the World Cup, Taylor predicted that Littler would probably become “one of the best darts players of all time”. Maybe he was so sure because he recognized himself in Littler.