Luke Littler set on highway to darts stardom by dad telling him ‘grasp up footy boots’
Luke Littler’s parents have been helping him get to where he is now from a tiny age, with an 18-month old Luke seen in footage chucking arrows at a magnetic board his old man is said to have bought second hand
Luke Littler’s dad pointed his superstar son towards the oche after telling him to hang up his football boots at the age of nine. The prince of British arrows has been praised for his cold-as-ice mentality but it seems at least some of that laser focus has come thanks to the direction he’s been steered in by his parents, cabbie Anthony Buckley, 43, and scented candle shop worker, Lisa Littler, 40.
Guiding lights, certainly, but the parents of the Young Sports Personality of the Year are also his biggest fan. They’ve been helping him get to where he is now from a tiny age, with an 18-month old Luke seen in footage chucking arrows at a magnetic board his old man is said to have bought second hand.
But his parents soon upgraded and got him playing on adult darts boards as young as possible – a plan that worked as, tonight (January 3), their lad will be taking on titan Michael van Gerwen for this year’s PDC World Championship.
But sacrifices had to be made along the way with Warrington man Anthony saying that at one point a big decision needed to be made.
He told the Times: “He was a good footballer. He loved football. All kids do. But I said to him at nine, hang your boots up. Concentrate on darts. You can still play football here and there. But if there’s a darts comp on at the weekends, go to darts first. Make that your priority, because I thought he could make it at darts — and he has done.”
A casual darts player himself, he added: “When I said to him, you need to keep playing darts, he was OK with it. We put him in every competition that was online. Sometimes you’re getting up at 7am on a Saturday — my only day off — just to play darts. There were no lie-ins.”
Speaking to the BBC about those early years, Littler said: “By the age of four I got on to the proper board. From 18 months on I have been non-stop. When we moved to Warrington when I was eight or nine we started going out to pubs four to five times a week.”
It’s not just his parents who have been looking out for him. The news comes off the back tnat Luke has gone on something of a health kick this year. He explained: “My manager said ‘When you finish it could be 11 or 12, it’s all fast food’. So I’ve got to look after myself, eat before I play. When I’ve finished, even if I stay up to whenever, I just won’t eat. This is my new way of living.”
