Former darts world champion issues warning to Luke Littler following last night’s loss
A three-time world darts champion has given the sport's new wonderkid a warning after reaching the final of the World Darts Championship.
Luke Littler became the youngest ever person to reach the WDC final, but he couldn't quite overcome Luke Humphries as the world number one took the trophy in a 7-4 win.
Despite his defeat this time around, Littler has surely got a bright future ahead of him and plenty more years to delight and captivate the Ally Pally crowd.
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All in all he seems like a nice young man who is very good at darts and has managed to bring all sorts of people, existing darts fans and those who wouldn't normally be so invested, along for the ride.
However, his meteoric rise may have some unintended consequences as Canadian former darts player John Part gave him a warning for what the 16-year-old can expect to face next.
The future is very much Littler's oyster at this point as he's generated a huge amount of excitement about what he'll do next.
Of course, like any sensible soul Littler still wants to have a bit of time to himself to play Football Manager, but you'd imagine it won't be long before he ends up standing in front of a dartboard again.
He'll have some money to spend thanks to reaching the WDC final, but Part has told him that when he gets back to darts things will be quite different.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: "It's going to be a bit of a shock to his system when he goes back to the behind-closed-doors tour environment after being spoiled by all this attention.
"I know he's done a lot of that just to get here, with the development tour and youth championships, but it's going to be a new grind for him.
"Littler will be a feather in people's cap if they can beat him."
It would be quite the achievement for anyone to beat Littler now he's announced himself to the sport, though even the very best lose every now and then.
It's not exaggerating to say that his game against Humphries really could have gone either way on the day.
At least he'll have his runners-up prize purse of £200,000 to enjoy, or rather he'll have what's left of it after paying tax on the prize.
According to investment platform Saxo, Littler will have to pay tax on his winnings and they estimate that after it all the amount he'll actually be left with is around £116,467.
That's still plenty enough to afford some tracksuits and in-game currency for FIFA.
Topics: Luke Littler, Sport, UK News
Joe Harker