- Luke Littler has finally won a night of the Premier League in Belfast
- He beat Aspinall in the final after seeing off Van Gerwen and Humphries
- Littler is now second in the table and on course to qualify for the play-offs
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Luke Littler finally won a night of the Premier League as he beat Nathan Aspinall in the final in Belfast.
Despite consistently picking up points through the campaign, Littler had only made one out of eight finals prior to Thursday night, but he hit top form in Northern Ireland.
Littler kicked off the final with a 136 checkout, and nearly took out a 170 finish in the next leg but missed the bullseye. Aspinall returned to the oche to coolly take out 70, and then won the next two legs to move 3-1 ahead.
Back came Littler, with a 125 finish on the bullseye levelling things up at 3-3.
Littler took control by winning the next two legs, only for Aspinall to hit back by breaking Littler’s throw to bring the score back to 5-4. But Littler steadied himself to win wrap up a 6-4 win and move into second place in the table.
Speaking after his victory, Littler explained that he had made slight adjustments to his game and was delighted they had paid off.
‘I’m happy to win, it’s my first one,’ he told Sky Sports. ‘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].
‘I’ve put more practice in and it’s paid off.’
Littler started the night by edging past world champion Luke Humphries in a thrilling encounter as he kept his nerve to seal a 6-5 victory.
The teenage sensation had promised YouTuber JaackMaate this week that he would do a finger-wagging celebration if he won in reference to a spat he had with German rival Ricardo Pietreczko earlier this month at the Belgian Darts Open.
But he was overcome with emotion after getting the better of Humphries and celebrated wildly instead, before embracing his opponent.
That victory set up a semi-final meeting with Michael van Gerwen, and Littler made a fast start once more to move in front.
Van Gerwen was unable to match the scoring power of Littler, and the youngster from Warrington let out a roar as he took out double 20 to open up a 5-2 advantage.
The Dutchman managed to get another leg on the board, but Littler never looked like surrendering his lead and wrapped up a 6-3 win.
Littler’s night victory moves him onto 18 points, and he has put himself in a strong position to qualify for the end-of-season play-offs.
Humphries still leads the way on 22 points, while Van Gerwen (17) and Aspinall (16) complete the top four.
