Luke Littler has been given a straightforward piece of advice from a darts legend on how to deal with the increasingly hostile reception he has been receiving: just laugh it off and get on with it.
1983 world champion Keith Deller, speaking on talkSPORT, said he believed the 19-year-old would bounce back from the recent setbacks — the Manchester bust-up with Gian van Veen and the subsequent booing in Brighton where Littler delivered the worst televised performance of his career.
Deller drew on his own era of the sport to put things in perspective, pointing to two of darts’ most famous pantomime villains as examples of players who thrived under hostile conditions. “At the end of the day, we had it back in our day. Eric [Bristow] got booed in Scotland because he used to upset Jocky Wilson a few times. That’s just the way it is. But Eric loved it and that’s what you’ve got to do. Peter Manley, he was one of them again. He used to get booed sometimes and just laugh. I think you’ve just got to laugh it off really, because if you start getting to it and the crowd knows that you don’t like it, then you’re in trouble. Because they know they’re going to do it.”
The advice cuts to the heart of what has happened to Littler over the last two weeks. In Manchester, he reacted visibly to the noise of the crowd mid-match against Van Veen — and his reaction sparked the whole confrontation. In Brighton the following week, he was interrupted mid-throw by a loud whistle from the stands, stepped off the oche, smiled, and gestured towards the crowd as if to challenge the reaction, before going on to record his worst-ever Premier League average.
Sky Sports commentator Dan Dawson observed the pattern in real time: “The crowd are getting to him. He is going to laugh it off. It is probably the best way to deal with it. This is what pressure does to people. Luke Littler 5-2 up probably ignores that.”
Deller also rejected the notion that jealousy alone is driving the hostility, while acknowledging it plays a part. “I think there’s always a little bit of jealousy. I mean Luke’s now a multi-millionaire. They might think: ‘Oh, look at him now’. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to remember, Luke Littler’s done so much for our sport. How many youngsters are taking the game up? The viewing figures now are going through the roof. Companies are becoming involved. Arenas are sold out because of Luke Littler.”
On the question of whether Littler might reduce his schedule over the hostility he faces in certain countries, Deller was philosophical: “In Germany, there’s a lot of whistling going on — he doesn’t like it. He’s not bothered about going to Germany very often. I think the fans are the ones who will lose out.”
Littler himself set a high watermark for self-assurance in his response to the Ally Pally crowd at the World Championship back in December, when he turned to the crowd after beating Rob Cross and told them: “I’m not bothered. Really not bothered. You guys pay for tickets and you pay for my prize so thanks for booing me.” Whether he can replicate that same composure in Rotterdam on Thursday, where a Dutch crowd will be firmly behind Van Veen for his first Premier League night on home soil, remains the question of the week.
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