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Luke Littler sends message to booing crowd with gesture after Gian van Veen spat
Luke Littler sent a defiant message to a hostile Rotterdam crowd on Thursday night, making a “calm down” gesture to jeering fans as he powered his way to the Night 11 final of the Premier League Darts before ultimately falling to Jonny Clayton.
The 19-year-old world champion found himself cast as public enemy number one at Rotterdam Ahoy, with his entrance music rendered virtually inaudible beneath a wall of whistling, booing and shouting. The jeering began even before Littler reached the stage, with his image on the pre-match screen prompting an immediate negative response from the partisan orange-clad supporters.
The hostile reception continued a theme that has followed his spat with Dutch number one Gian van Veen from Night Nine in Manchester, where Van Veen said Littler was “out of order” for celebrating towards the crowd.
Littler had said beforehand he would not react to the taunts, but the teenager had other ideas once he was under the lights. When the match against Luke Humphries was level at two legs apiece, Littler made a “calm down” gesture to the crowd, which only served to ramp up the noise further.
Sky Sports commentator Wayne Mardle said on commentary: “Littler said he will not react, but he has just reacted there — and they don’t like it! I think he’s had enough of not reacting. He is strutting and really giving it now. When he has this swagger, he’s hard to deal with. He’s giving it the full repertoire. I like it!”
The swagger carried him through. Littler pushed himself out to 5-2 ahead with four legs on the spin but Humphries battled back with three legs of his own to bring the match level at 5-5, before Littler held his nerve on his own throw and took out his favourite double ten to reach the final.
Sky Sports analyst Glen Durrant praised Littler’s composure throughout: “It’s brutal in here tonight. I’m not sure I would have had the mental capacity to deal with it, but Littler is different.”
The prospect of a rematch with Van Veen in the semi-finals had loomed large, but it never materialised. Van Veen fell at the first hurdle to Luke Humphries, meaning the Dutchman’s long-awaited home walk-on in front of his own fans was the only joy he would find on the night.
Littler then came unstuck in the final against a rampant Jonny Clayton. After claiming the opening two legs in impressive fashion, Littler was soon pegged back as Clayton prevailed 6-4, extending his lead at the top of the Premier League table to five points.
Despite the defeat, Littler was bullish about his night’s work. “It was exactly what I expected — the boos and whistles,” he told Sky Sports. “But I knew as soon as I got on stage I could do my job.”
The night in Rotterdam marked the first time since 2019 that two Dutch players had featured in the Premier League, but both Van Veen and Michael van Gerwen lost in the quarter-finals. Clayton’s dominance, meanwhile, shows no sign of easing. The Welshman now sits on 29 points at the summit, with Littler on 24 points in second, Gerwyn Price on 19 in third and Van Gerwen on 16 in fourth.
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