Luke Littler choked an eleventh-leg decider on his own throw against Ross Smith to be dumped out of Players Championship 7. ‘The Nuke’ held a comfortable lead in the leg and looked on course to book his spot on the quarter-finals, before Smith came roaring back in the nick of time.
Littler looked on course to clinch his second Players Championship triumph of the year when he edged out the world’s in-form player, Luke Humphries, in the last 32. A repeat of the World Darts Championship final saw the 17-year-old prevail 6-5 after a tense decider.
It was a different story for Littler against Smith. ‘The Nuke’ was firmly in control the score at 5-5, working his way down to 94 on his own throw while his opponent – ranked 16th in the world – was stranded on 298.
Littler effectively had six darts to find his way home from less than a ton but failed to do so, first hitting a dreary 46 to leave the door open for Smith, who piled in another maximum at an opportune moment, on a day when he bombarbed the treble 20.
The odds were still firmly in favour of Littler, who had three darts in his hand to get down from 48. But the youngster went low on double tops and missed his favourite double 10 by a hair’s width. Smith then took out a 68 checkout with two perfect darts.
Littler secured a Players Championship victory back in February, hitting a nine-darter en route to beating Ryan Searle in the final. And the Warrington-born prodigy looked on course to add another ranking title to his collection when he continued his head-to-head dominance over world champion Humphries.
‘Cool Hand’ got the better of Littler when it mattered most, at the Ally Pally in January, but he has lost five matches on the spin against his rival ever since. But ‘The Nuke’ was unable to capitalise in Leicester this week as his tournament ended in disappointment.
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