Luke Littler hit back at darts fans with a defiant gesture at the UK Open, after he was brutally booed during his tense finale with Peter Wright on Friday. The world champion held his nerve to win 10-9 in the second stage of the tournament but was given an almighty scare by Wright, who twice fought back from the brink to take the teenage sensation all the way. And the 18-year-old didn’t have it all go his way on the night in Minehead, with the crowd booing him at one stage. Littler responded with a gesture that indicated his irritation, wagging his finger in their direction and appearing to mouth the words: “Not a chance.”
The incident occurred when the scores were locked at 9-9, with Littler and Wright heading into a nailbiting decider. The former had the opportunity to pull off a 170 checkout to clinch the match, but decided to take the safer option and leave himself with a double 20 to finish. The crowd didn’t appear to like that as loud boos echoed around the arena. Littler was justified in his tactics, though, landing the next dart on double-tops at the first attempt and celebrated with the pump of his fist.
Littler found himself needing to produce huge numbers just to get the better of Wright, who landed six 180s during the 19-leg contest. The Warrington star stayed above a 109 average towards the end of the match, which was just enough to down the former two-time champion Wright, who has rarely played better against a player of Littler’s calibre and finished with an average of 101.
‘Snakebite’ nailed 50 per cent of his checkouts on the night – a better rate than Littler who squandered 12 of his 22 attempts – and also registered an impressive 122 checkout.
The Scot, 54, never gave up despite going 3-2 and 7-4 down and looked to be the favourite when he pulled it back to 9-9. Littler had missed his match dart with a 9-7 lead and invited Wright back into the match before ending his hopes in the decider.
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Littler also gave a cheeky nod to the camera after moving towards clinching his place in the next round. And he admitted he had to dig deep to find his best form.
“It’s always good to get off a two or 3-0 start,” Littler said to ITV Sport. “That’s not always going to happen, it happened a few times in this game. But I had to come back a few times and went on to win.”