On June 21, 2025, Luke Littler, the 18-year-old PDC World Champion and world No. 2, fired a sharp retort at Northern Ireland’s Neil Duff following Duff’s taunt over England’s early exit from the 2025 World Cup of Darts, per The Irish Sun. Littler, who alongside world No. 1 Luke Humphries lost 8-4 to Germany’s Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko in the round of 16, faced criticism from two-time world champion Dennis Priestley, who claimed the duo “let their country down” and didn’t deserve their recent MBE honors, per Express. Littler had already hit back at Priestley via a now-deleted Instagram Story, stating, “Don’t deserve an MBE but done more in 12 months than he ever did,” per SPORTbible.
Duff, the 2022 WDF world champion, piled on with a sarcastic Facebook post, “How’s England doing?” after Northern Ireland’s Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney won the tournament, per DartsNerd. When Duff suffered a 4-1 loss to Martin Thomas in the MODUS Super Series group stage on June 21, Littler seized the moment, sharing a screenshot of Thomas’ match-winning dart on his Instagram Story with the caption, “How’s Neil Duff doing?” followed by a smiley face, per Dartsnews.de. Littler’s ongoing spats, amplified by X posts like @DartsNews02, show his readiness to defend himself, per. Despite the drama, Littler is set to return at the U.S. Darts Masters on June 27, per Sporting News.
