16-year-old darts sensation Luke Littler revealed that “everyone’s probably got more than me” when asked about his GCSE grades in the build-up to the World Darts Championship final. The schoolboy could pocket as much as £500,000 if he beats Luke Littler at the Alexandra Palace showpiece on Wednesday evening.
Littler has poured his efforts into darts and has been playing since he was a toddler, with that work since paying off dividends following his 6-2 semi-final win over Rob Cross.
However, it has come at a price as Littler initially explained to SportsBoom.com that he has no GCSEs, before remembering that he “did pass sport”.
“Well, I don’t have any GCSEs,” he said in the build-up to Wednesday’s final against Humphries. “Everyone’s probably got more than me; in fact, I did pass sport.”
His schoolfriends are all cheering him on back home though and he plans to reward them with a heartwarming gesture with his prize money, having already earned a guaranteed £200,000.
He told talkSPORT: “All my friends are watching at home, we’ve always said we need to go Blackpool or Alton Towers so I think they will be looking at me like ‘you’re paying, Luke’ and I’ll be like, yeah, okay!”
Littler is aware of his new status as a role model for aspiring darts professionals after his barnstorming run on his Alexandra Palace debut and had a message for those looking up to him: “If you do practice, then you could be where I am.”
Crowds inside Ally Pally have routinely been chanting that Littler “has school in the morning” on his fairytale run but those close to him have known that this success has been long in the making.
His Year 11 classmates voted him ‘Most likely to be famous’ in their end-of-year awards and even though he picked up just one GCSE from school, Littler has quickly become a household name.
