Luke Littler is already mature enough to understand that not every experience in his darts career would be quite as exhilarating as his unforgettable breakthrough into the sporting stratosphere a few weeks ago. But had that thought entered his mind amid a litany of mainstream media attention and worldwide headlines, his first official night as a professional player would have represented a bristling reality check.
Barely a fortnight ago, Littler was playing in the biggest match of them all, the final of the World Darts Championship after a series of astonishing performances that left the world in awe of the 16-year-old’s ability. While he came up short against Luke Humphries that night, Littler is the talk of the sport and is already transcending the game he makes look ridiculously easy on occasions – which is why it was perhaps no surprise that the Professional Darts Corporation wasted little time in cashing in on that momentum.
Already chosen for the lucrative Premier League, which begins in February, Littler has also been selected by the PDC to play in the first two World Series of Darts events of 2024. These tournaments, the first of the season, are designed to boost darts’ global popularity – but Bahrain, the host of the first, is a world away from the Ally Pally for a variety of reasons, sporting and non-sporting.
The Bahrain International Circuit plays host to major sporting events including Formula One’s Bahrain Grand Prix but this, the opening night of the Bahrain Darts Masters, did not quite have the same razzmatazz. If the crowd in London was a firecracker of noise and emotion, this was more of a tame fizz. When the night’s action started with the two-time world champion Peter Wright facing Japan’s Haruki Muramatsu, there was only a few dozen people inside the arena.
The event was not even televised in the UK, bumped to ITV’s online platforms over snooker’s World Grand Prix and the 2013 Christmas special of Downton Abbey. This was, in a nutshell, the reality of life as a professional for Littler: barely anything matches the pomp and circumstance the annual festive jamboree at Alexandra Palace can provide, and it is how you handle that change in gear – all the PDC’s Pro Tour events are played in empty venues behind closed doors – that can so often be decisive.
This was a world away from the unforgettable experiences Littler will have enjoyed not only during the world championship, but since then, with VIP hospitality at his beloved rugby league side, Warrington Wolves, as well as the same treatment at Old Trafford for Manchester United’s game against Tottenham. But this is the start for Littler, whose first year as a professional will be ultra-demanding, not only away from the oche but on it, too.
In reality, these events mean little. They are non-ranked, and the prize money is hardly life-changing for a teenager who pocketed £200,000 in January: the victor of his match against Hong Kong’s Man Lok Leung here won £2,500. With all that in mind, you wondered how Littler would fare given all the post-world championship pressure on him. But pressure is something Littler simply seems immune to.
The swagger and confidence that led many to wonder how Littler can be so good at such a young age was on display in Bahrain. By the time he made his walk-on in the fifth game of the evening, the crowd had swollen: not a sell out, but it was certainly evident some had come especially to see Littler. As for the performance? There were flashes of brilliance; back-to-back 12-dart legs, mesmerising finishes of 151 and 136 in successive legs and the occasional bit of showboating. Littler was too good in the end, winning 6-3 to set up a quarter-final with Nathan Aspinall on Friday.
But whatever would have happened here, it would be long forgotten by the time Littler’s first year as a professional concludes. The bigger moments and the bigger tournaments are still to come for this precocious teenager with the darts world at his fingertips. But his opening salvo into life as a pro underlined two things: while nothing will match the hype of his breakthrough, he seems perfectly capable of handling whatever is thrown his way.
