Luke Littler has made an interesting admission ahead of his PDC World Darts Championship semi-final against fellow Englishman Ryan Searle.
Littler, who has reached the final of the PDC World Darts Championship in his two previous appearances at the tournament, will face Searle in the final four, with the teenager looking to retain his title having won the 2024/25 crown at Alexandra Palace.
On New Year’s Day (January 1), Littler beat Poland’s Krzysztof Ratajski 5-0 in the pair’s quarter-final, while 2023/24 winner Luke Humphries was dumped out as he lost 5-1 against the Netherlands’ Gian van Veen, who also progressed to the final four.
Van Veen will face two-time world champion Gary Anderson in the semi-final on Friday (January 2), with the winner set to face Littler or Searle in Saturday’s (January 3) final.
Advert
The winner of this year’s competition will receive a record £1 million prize.
- If you want to see even more from SPORTbible, make us a preferred source on Google.
So, given the cash and prospect of becoming just the fourth player to retain the world title, you’d expect Littler to be doing everything he can to ensure he leaves no stone unturned ahead of the tournament’s climax.
But this does not appear to be the case with the teenager making a stunning admission following last night’s quarter-final.
Speaking in a post-match press conference, ‘The Nuke’ claimed that he didn’t practice before he clashed with Ratajski.
Although based on the result, you wouldn’t have known that he had not thrown a dart since his previous match on December 29.
When asked by a journalist about there being no dartboard in his house despite him being the number one ranked player on the planet, Littler said: "Obviously, I have not been practising for nearly two and a half, three days.
"I tried to change my throw here, there, and everywhere. Most importantly, I got the job done.
"Just not practising, just being lazy in the house. Obviously, we've not brought our dartboard down.
"So yeah, I can't really practice, but I would have loved to. Now we play day after day, so hopefully tomorrow's a bit better.
"We stayed in the house last year, and it worked. Obviously, last year, house, no board, won it.
"House this year, no board- see what happens!"
Following the PDC World Darts Championships climax, Littler will return to action later this month for the 2026 Bahrain Darts Masters.
The 18-year-old previously won the tournament in 2024 but lost to Gerwyn Price in the quarter-finals of the 2025 competition.
Topics: Luke Littler, Darts
Luke Davies