- Luke Littler won his first Premier League night in Belfast on Thursday
- But it wasn’t all plain sailing as he wildly missed a shot at double tops in the final
- Littler saw the funny side and mocked himself after his wayward dart
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Luke Littler hilariously trolled himself during his Premier League final against Nathan Aspinall on week nine in Belfast on Thursday night.
Having seen off Luke Humphries and Michael van Gerwen to make it to just his second final of the campaign, Littler won the opening leg against Aspinall before his opponent hit back to square things up at 1-1.
In the third leg, Littler needed to take out 131 with Aspinall sitting on 16, and made a good start by hitting treble 17 to leave himself needing 80 with his final two darts.
The 17-year-old decided that trying to hit double 20 twice was the way to go and aimed for tops, but his first dart flew way above the target and was nearer to missing the board than landing in the double segment.
There was a stunned murmur from the crowd, but Littler took it all in his stride as he proceeded to put his hand to his forehead and pretended to look out into the distance for his wayward dart.
His reaction to his miss drew laughs from the Belfast fans and the Sky Sports commentary team, with Rod Studd announcing ‘there she blows’ as he joked that the wind had taken Littler’s effort off course.
Aspinall returned to the oche to complete his checkout and went on to move into a 3-1 lead.
But Littler had the bit between his teeth – despite his moment of fun – and came roaring back to close out a 6-4 victory.
His triumph secured him five points on the night and lifted him to second in the Premier League table behind world champion Luke Humphries.
He is on course to make the end-of-season play-offs, and revealed afterwards that altering his throw had helped him come out on top in Northern Ireland.
‘As people may have seen, I’ve changed my throw to just take that little bit of extra time and then release the next two [darts],’ he told Sky Sports.
‘I’ve put more practice in, and it’s paid off.’
The Premier League moves on to Manchester next week – a little closer to home for the Warrington-born teenager.
Littler is looking forward to returning to the North-West, where he will aim to build on this week’s triumph over close friend Aspinall.
‘I’m just glad to win it and obviously against a good friend, Nath,’ he added.
‘I can’t wait for next week in Manchester.
‘I know I’ve got Michael van Gerwen next week in the first round but obviously Nath will enjoy next week in his home town, and it’s close to my home. I can’t wait.’
