Luke Littler in World Darts boost as opponent takes 7000-mile round trip, with teen one match from biggest EVER pay day

11 months ago 63

LUKE LITTLER is hoping his next darts opponent – the Ginga Ninja – will be screwed up by jetlag after taking TWO 3,500-mile flights within a week.

The 16-year-old darts sensation opened his Christmas presents on Monday with some cheeky wags on social media asking if he still believes in Santa Claus.

Luke Littler would secure £35,000 if he wins at Ally Pally tonight[/caption]

Tonight he will battle Canadian Matt Campbell on the Ally Pally oche and the winner will make the last 16 of the PDC World Darts Championship for the first time.

They would also be guaranteed to bank £35,000 in prize money – which would be the biggest payday of the teenager’s young career after twice landing £25,000 for winning the Modus Super Series.

Campbell shocked No13 seed James Wade on Tuesday December 19 but rather than stay in London on his own, he flew back to Toronto to spend the festive period with his family in Hamilton, Ontario.

On Boxing Day, the world No57 made the return journey to the UK but he will have little rest time before facing the Boy Wonder over the best of seven sets from 7pm.

Littler, who is 17 next month, said: “Well, as bad as it sounds, I hope he does get jetlag!

“That might be a little bit of an advantage. I’m sure we will have a good game.

“Obviously Matt has beaten James Wade, a multiple major winner, and he has done so much good for Canadian and US darts.

“But it is him or me now. I have got to face him.

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“I will take it game by game. I know loads of people are saying they are throwing bets on me. They do show me. But I have to beat who is on the stage against me.”

Campbell, 34, is a welder by trade but can bag the £35,000 cheque if he silences the crowd and ends the fairy tale run of the Warrington teen, who left school last summer.

Between 2019 and 2022, he was a serial loser at this place, going out in the first round of the Worlds on four straight occasions.

But he got his first win in the competition by beating Filipino Lourence Ilagan in a fifth-set first-round decider.

Many pros from abroad stay over in the capital for Christmas rather than risk getting tired with long-haul flights or even having trips cancelled or disrupted.

But red-headed Campbell has justified the transatlantic trip, joking: “If I stay awake when I fly back, there’s no jetlag, right?

“It’s not a risk. I’ve been doing this for two years, flying and back forth, and it had got me to the Worlds.

“I think that I need that family time more than anything else, 100 per cent.

“Christmas Day was all about kids opening presents and being excited and ignoring me for the rest of the day as they get to play with all their new toys.”

LUKE OF A WINNER

Littler has been the talk of this year’s World Championship and electrified a tournament that seldom gets going until the third and fourth rounds start after Christmas.

His performances have caught the attention of those who are not darts fans and his fame and social media following has exploded over the past week.

There are echoes of what he is achieving to what Fallon Sherrock did four years ago when she became the first woman to beat the men on a PDC world platform.

Sherrock knocked out Ted Evetts and Mensur Suljovic but then lost to Chris Dobey in the third round – whereas reigning world youth champ Littler will be tipped to go at least one round further.

The Queen of the Palace, 29, said: “Luke doesn’t throw like a child. He throws like one of the top men in the world.

“My advice would be: go and enjoy it. Don’t get carried away with stuff. Remember to keep your feet on the ground.

“Don’t do what I did and get carried away with everything. Then you lose that bit of stamina and stuff, you’re having to regroup a little bit.

“The key is to carry on enjoying it. Don’t make it so that he gets so stressed and feels the pressure. Keep enjoying it.”