In darts news, the new men's world champion is 17.

January 4, 2025 12:40 AM

Last night, the final of the darts mens World Championship was held in front of the usual raucous crowd in the Alexandra Palace. The contenders were Michael van Gerwen (The Netherlands) and Luke Littler (England). In a one-sided match, Luke won. He is credited as a reason for the recent popularity of the sport traditionally rooted in pub culture. Darts Corner: Where is darts the most popular?
posted by Wordshore (10 comments total)

The prince of dart-ness?
posted by Paul Slade at 12:42 AM on January 4 [3 favorites]

BBC - Teenage kicks - what makes history-making Littler so good?:

"His pace of play and shot selection, sometimes taking an alternative route to the norm, has even caught out seasoned darts 'spotters' on TV coverage as they alert directors to the next camera angle.

He hit four nine-darters last year, including in the Premier League final – one of 10 titles in his debut professional season – and revels in taking out the highest possible checkout of 170, a crowd-pleasing treble 20, treble 20 and bullseye known as 'The Big Fish'.

Littler is lethal on double 10, which also acts as a back-up shot if he misses double tops, while others might prefer double eight or 16 on the opposite side of the board.

Despite his quick thinking, he has admitted to being "terrible" at maths at school.

"It's just the longer you practise, the quicker you get to know checkouts, scoring and finishing up and laying up your shots and you know what to go for. So the more you play, the more you get used to it," he said.

There has been plenty of play, having started throwing magnetic darts aged just 18 months and moving to a proper board by the age of five."
posted by Wordshore at 1:20 AM on January 4 [4 favorites]

Luke Littler is such good news for my youngest's boyfriend. He grew up playing dart and that is his sport of choice, but took a long break because all the other players were drunk old men. Now, that has all changed and he leads a competitive team. Through him, I've learnt a lot about darts as a sport, and it is hilarious.
posted by mumimor at 1:30 AM on January 4 [9 favorites]

The prince of dart-ness?
posted by Paul Slade at 3:42 on January 4

As usual in the grauniad, the gold is in the comments.
posted by lalochezia at 1:30 AM on January 4 [1 favorite]

He’s 17 in Pub Years, which is not the same thing you know

A fist-pumping kebab-eatin’ powerhouse of a dude
posted by bookbook at 1:32 AM on January 4 [2 favorites]

Somewhere, Eric Bristow is crying salt tears.
posted by Paul Slade at 3:54 AM on January 4 [3 favorites]

Are we sure he won? The BBC is upset that Apple AI alert falsely claimed Luke Littler had already won darts final:

A news summary from Apple falsely claimed darts player Luke Littler had won the PDC World Championship - before he even played in the final. The incorrect summary was written by artificial intelligence (AI) and is based on a BBC story about Littler winning the tournament semi-final on Thursday night. Within hours on Friday, another AI notification summary falsely told some BBC Sport app users that Tennis great Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.

Apple, which has been contacted for a response, previously declined to comment on similar examples of false AI alerts about news stories.

posted by autopilot at 5:14 AM on January 4 [1 favorite]

so it's true

AI really has arrived to shit on everything
posted by ginger.beef at 6:31 AM on January 4

Barbecue sauce.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:04 AM on January 4 [1 favorite]

The highlights of this match (first link) are really cool to watch for someone who doesn't know much about competitive darts.
posted by Gadarene at 6:35 PM on January 5 [1 favorite]