Luke Littler has played down the idea of buying a private jet as he continues to dominate darts. The Nuke began his quest for a second Bahrain Masters title with a comfortable 6-1 victory over veteran Paul Lim. Despite disliking the lengthy World Series flights to Australia, Littler has no qualms about trips to the Middle East.
Even though he’s amassed nearly £3million in prize money during his first two years on the circuit and earned plenty more from endorsements, the young player remains down-to-earth. He has no plans to splurge on a private jet, stating: “Nah, probably not. You need to save your money. I can’t go splashing it now!
“But who knows, in a few years’ time when I’ve hopefully earned a bit more, then I can maybe sort one out, even just to go to a Euro Tour and just see what it’s like. Ryanair’s class, innit?”
Regarding travel to the Middle East, he said: “It’s different to Australia. That’s not a nice flight. Sat in your seat for about 16 hours, well even 24 hours to Dubai, then Dubai to wherever you’re flying in Australia, it’s not good. But it is very easy to get over here and yeah, we’ll be back next year.”
Littler sailed past Lim and revealed that he had deployed a fresh set of arrows.
He revealed: “We went to a bar the other day and had a chuck of the new darts, I managed to hit a nine-darter within the space of 25 minutes. Obviously, every set of darts I use, I want to make them work. I always want to try and win games with them.”
Littler has returned to the venue where he claimed his maiden senior crown and reflected: “The World Championships holds a special place, obviously it’s the biggest tournament, but for me that was my first PDC tournament and then my second PDC tournament was here in Bahrain where I got the victory.
“It’s always good to come back here. People are questioning if I want it or if it was just a bit of practice, but this is a start for us players, a start for the Premier League lot and you want to start off the year right with a title.”
Littler relished his encounter with Lim and grinned when asked about competing until the age of 71, like the Singaporean maestro.
He declared: “Not a chance! Paul’s been doing well for many, many years, very good soft tip player, and then he brings it over to the proper points, but he’s just class. He’s still going to be very strong in the practice room as well.”