Footage has emerged of teen sensation Luke Littler throwing darts as a toddler. A video uploaded to YouTube in 2009 shows a very young Littler in a hat, top and nappy throwing magnetic darts at a board in his living room with immaculate technique.
Littler has taken the darts world by storm this year with his coming-of-age victories over Christian Kist and Andrew Gilding at the PDC Darts World Championship. The 16-year-old wonderkid is through to the third round of the tournament in his Alexandra Palace debut and has been backed to go all the way and win it by multiple big-name stars.
Sky Sports pundit Wayne Mardle referred to him as “probably the most naturally gifted player I have ever seen in my life” while 16-time world champion Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor has compared Littler to darts legend Michael van Gerwen.
Despite seemingly coming out of nowhere, Littler has been perfecting his craft since he was 18 months old and is a decorated junior player. “By the age of four, I got on to the proper board,” Littler, ranked 164th in the world by the PDC, told the BBC.
“From 18 months on I have been non-stop. When we moved to Warrington when I was eight or nine we started going out to pubs four to five times a week.”
‘The Nuke’ is the reigning PDC World Youth Champion and notched up multiple senior titles while still at school so it comes as no surprise that his natural talent shone from a young age. There are three videos uploaded on YouTube by user ‘bigsaggy80’ of Littler when he would have been between two and three years old.
One of the videos entitled ‘Phil Taylor’ shows Littler hitting multiple 20s with ease while later in the video, the young starlet attempts a few no-look throws before a woman in the background, presumably his mother Lisa, tells him to “calm down”.
Snap’s I’ve Got The Power can be heard playing in the background as Littler giggles and dances. The video then ends with Littler climbing up onto a chair and giving the camera a cheesy grin.
Littler is back in action on Wednesday in the evening session against Canadian Matt Campbell at around 7pm as he continues his bid to become the youngest world champion in the history of the sport.
