WARRINGTON’S Luke Littler silenced the Liverpool crowd’s boos and closed the gap at the top of the Premier League table with an emphatic 6-1 victory over Jonny Clayton on Night 12.
Clayton is still in top spot in the Premier League with four regular weeks remaining on 32 points, but Littler is now just three points behind on 29. Gerwyn Price sits in third spot on 19 points, with Michael van Gerwen in fourth on 18 points.
Gian van Veen is then next in line on 14 points, while defending champion Luke Humphries is in sixth on 13 points, with the race for Finals Night really hitting crunch time.
The win last night (Thursda) marks Littler’s fourth nightly win of his campaign and the Manchester United fan spent the night defying the jeers and boos of the partisan Liverpool audience who were on his opponent’s side throughout the evening.
“It was a good night. I’m very happy with myself,” Littler told Sky Sports.
“Usually the doubling is not there, but I’m very thankful it was tonight. A lot of crucial doubles at crucial times.
“I’m very close to Jonny now, three points off. I’m going to go chasing – I want to finish top once again – and if it’s not to be, it’s not to be. But there’s still four weeks to go.”
In the final against Clayton, Littler raced into a 5-0 lead as he denied the Welshman any opportunity to get into the contest. In the first three legs Clayton’s only checkout chances came on bullseye.
Clayton managed to stop the rot to ensure he did not suffer a whitewash defeat but that only delayed Littler’s victory by one leg.
Littler defied an imperious display from Michael van Gerwen as he took the deciding leg in a 6-5 semi-final.
The match was a display of vintage Van Gerwen with nine maximums, 71 per cent on the doubles, and a 107.54 average for the Dutchman but somehow Littler managed to hang on, change his darts, and go from 3-1 down to showing off imperious finishing.
Even after Littler’s fight back, it looked like the match was Van Gerwen’s to take when he broke Littler’s throw with an 11-darter to move 5-4 in front and give himself the opportunity to throw for the match. However, Littler made sure to break straight back, let out a celebration, and take the game all the way. The world No 1 then found a 180 at the most pivotal moment of the final leg to set himself up on 46, which he took out on tops before giving it large to the crowd.
Luke Humphries was dealt a devastating blow to his Premier League finals night hopes following a 6-2 loss to Littler in the quarter-finals, seeing him walk away from Liverpool with no more points.
While Humphries was scoring higher, his doubling was looser and down at just 18 per cent, allowing Littler to rattle off four legs as he raced into a 4-0 lead.
Although Humphries managed to hold his throw twice, it was nowhere near enough as he fell to a seventh loss to the world No 1 in their last eight meetings.
However, Littler stayed strong throughout, especially on the doubles, and sealed a big win in his quest to go into Finals Night in top spot.
Littler later shrugged off the boos he received in Liverpool declaring that the reaction he received on Night 11 in Rotterdam was the “worst he has experienced”. He has become used to receiving jeers from crowds of late, with the worst coming from his spat with Dutch No 1 Gian van Veen on Night Nine in Manchester.
Van Veen won a controversial match in which Littler reacted angrily after his opponent turned towards him when throwing match darts, the Dutchman saying Littler was “out of order” for “celebrating towards the crowd”.
That led to Littler receiving boos as he headed to the stage for each of his three matches in his run to the final on Night 11 in Rotterdam in front of Van Veen’s home crowd.
For Littler, after his experience in Rotterdam, nothing was going to faze him.
“It is what it is [crowd booing]. I’ve won and we move on to next week,” Littler told Sky Sports. “Rotterdam was way louder than this tonight. This week was nothing compared to last week.
“But I’ve just got to forget about it. I was focused, I definitely wanted to win tonight and that’s what I’ve done.”
He later added: “I even proved to people last week that I can win games under those circumstances and I’ve done it again.
“There is no anxiety there. I just expect the worst but it was not worse than Rotterdam.
“That is the worst I have experienced. It is good to come through those games under those circumstances.
It is now three weeks on from Littler and Van Veen’s original spat, which ignited the disdain for the former from the crowds each week.
Littler says the pair have still not spoken but he believes they have both “moved on” from the incident.
