Luke Littler has aimed a not-so-subtle dig at Northern Irish player Neil Duff, just days after the former WDF world champion mocked England's World Cup of Darts exit.
Littler and world number one Luke Humphries represented England at the 2025 World Cup of Darts, but after receiving a bye through the group stage, they lost 8-4 in their round of 16 match against Germany's Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko.
A short time later, Neil Duff posted "How's England doing?" on his Facebook status – a comment Littler clearly took note of.
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After the Northern Irish player suffered a 4-1 defeat to Martin Thomas at the Modus Super Series on Saturday, the teenager posted screenshots of Duff's original Facebook status, as well as his defeat to Wales' Thomas.
He captioned the Instagram story post: "How's Neil Duff doing?"
The World Cup was eventually won by Northern Ireland's Daryl Gurney and Josh Rock, who defeated the Wales pairing of Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton in the final.
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Duff isn't the only person in darts to mention England's early exit, which happened the day after Littler and Humphries were awarded MBEs in recognition of their contribution to the sport.
Two-time world champion Dennis Priestley claimed that the pair had "let their country down'" and had not achieved enough in the game yet to deserve an MBE.
"Luke Littler and Luke Humphries let their country down at the World Cup of Darts, from what we've heard they weren't sitting together or practicing together," Priestley told OLBG.
"When I was playing in pairs with Phil Taylor we practiced together and sat together, we played all over the world and I only remember us getting beaten once.
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"To be brutally honest, I don't think either Luke Littler or Luke Humphries have done enough to earn their MBEs just yet. I think in time they could've done enough to warrant it but it feels very early, they have both won one World Championship each and are still young in their careers.
"Littler has been recognised for raising the popularity of darts which is great, but he can still do so much more."
Littler soon hit back at Priestley with a now-deleted Instagram story. He wrote: "Don't deserve an MBE but done more in 12 months than he ever did... that's what I would say anyway."
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Humphries also took to social media to have his say on the controversial comments.
"Disappointing to hear a top former pro who I admired say such a damaging thing to me and Luke," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "I didn’t let my country down last year tho did I. One bad game for us and we will back next year to go again. let’s move on now."
Topics: Luke Littler, Darts
Jack Kenmare