Luke Littler wins back-to-back World Darts Championship and destroys Gian van Veen

Luke Littler has retained his World Darts Championship crown after he beat Gian van Veen 7-1 in the final at Ally Pally on Saturday night. The reigning champ was too good as he averaged 106.02 in a staggering display.

‘The Nuke’ returned for his third successive world final, having beaten Michael van Gerwen in last year’s final after losing to Luke Humphries in his breakout tournament. The 18-year-old took on his former youth rival Van Veen, who lifted the European Championship title in October.

Littler breezed past an out-of-sorts Ryan Searle 6-1 in the semi-final, averaging a huge 105.35. While Van Veen had to overcome the much tougher challenge put up by two-time world champion Gary Anderson, beating the Scotsman 6-3 in a classic on the Ally Pally stage.

And the match started at the ridiculous standard and tempo many believed the final would be played at as both of the opening two sets went with the throw before Littler kicked into gear and broke the Dutchman in the third set, wrapping it up with a 170 checkout and a staggering 115.68 average.

The defending world champ then flexed his muscles again to hold his throw and win the fourth set to take a 3-1 lead at the third break.

Van Veen hit back in the first leg of the fifth set with a double double on tops to land a 137 out before chaos struck on the stage as Littler was attacked by the Ally Pally wasp. The critter had Littler ducking and weaving before causing retiring referee George Noble to dodge out of the way in his final-ever game.

But it didn’t affect Littler as he remained composed to hold throw before breaking Van Veen in a crucial leg in the destiny of the title. ‘The Nuke’ returned to claim his fourth set in a row to leave the final completely in his control.

Littler then churned out another whitewash leg to take a 5-1 lead before the final was temporarily paused so the board could be changed after Van Veen appeared to cut his hand and get blood on the board.

But the delay didn’t cause a respite in Littler’s scoring as he took the opening two sets of the sixth leg before Van Veen went six perfect darts into the nine-dart leg, but the Dutchman missed two darts at double, allowing Littler to return and claim an eighth leg on the bounce.

Littler came back from another break to close out the inevitable as he took out D15 with a 147 out to wrap up the eighth set and seal the title in a demolition job final that few saw coming, given Van Veen’s form building up and throughout the final. But the new world No.3 was just not up to the task.

Plenty more of Van Veen will be seen next year with the Dutchman now guaranteed a spot in the Premier League due to his top four world ranking.