Luke Littler was fuming with himself in the deciding leg of his Premier League Darts defeat to Gerwyn Price on Thursday evening. ‘The Iceman’ finally got his revenge on the teenager in Glasgow after suffering two head-to-head defeats since the turn of the year.
Littler and Price put on an exhibition of high-octane darts during the opening exchanges at the OVO Hydro. Price was averaging almost 110 by the fourth leg, while Littler was up on a dizzying 122.
The scoring tailed off by the end of the match, but it was still a thrill a minute for supporters as the pair took it to an eleventh-leg decider. Price had the throw but Littler could have punched his ticket to the night’s semi-finals if he took out 96.
In trademark fashion, the 17-year-old went for a blockbuster double-double finish after hitting the single 20, but his first attempt at double 18 landed outside the board, handing the advantage back to Price.
Furious with the mistake, Littler stormed up to the board, smacked his knee and clearly mouthed ‘f*** off’ before collecting his darts. That was the youngster’s last action of the match as Price stepped up to take out double 12 and win the match 6-5.
The Welshman will have been desperate to get one over on his prodigious opponent having twice tasted defeat in his two matches against Littler, at the Bahrain Darts Masters and the Dutch Darts Masters last month.
“It’s a little kick up the backside and will get more people a little more interested and motivated to watch – I think it’s fantastic. He’s brilliant, but I will beat him soon.”
Despite his recent setback, Littler remains in a healthy position in the Premier League table, with 14 more nights of action to unfold leading up to the play-offs in May.