Luke Littler shrugged off boos in Liverpool after winning Night 12 of the Premier League, saying the reaction he faced on Night 11 in Rotterdam was “the worst he has experienced”.
Littler has become used to jeers in recent weeks, the low point coming after 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 incident led to Littler receiving boos as he walked on for each of his three matches during his run to the final on Night 11 in Rotterdam, playing in front of Van Veen’s home supporters. He again faced a chilly reception in Liverpool but responded on stage, beating Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen and Jonny Clayton to claim his fifth nightly win.
He now sits three points behind Clayton at the top with four regular weeks remaining.
” 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 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.”
Three weeks on from the original spat, Littler says he and Van Veen have still not spoken but believes they have both “moved on”. He is looking forward to settling matters on stage if they meet again.
“No, we have not spoken, but I’m not the type of person to go up and talk to him or something like that,” Littler said. “Maybe he is waiting for me to go and talk to him, but I’m not the type of person. Even in the practice room, people will talk to me first. I am not the type of person to be chatting away. We can obviously settle it on the dartboard. In the back room it has just been normal. It has just been the same preparation-wise. I think he’s forgotten about it. I forgot about it. If I need to talk to him, then I will. I don’t regret anything. Obviously, I had my opinion, he has got his opinion, so we are all entitled to it. I think we have both moved on with our game on stage, but off stage, obviously, we’ve not spoken. But yeah, I’m sure we will.”