Luke Littler and Gian van Veen were involved in a heated exchange at the Premier League Darts in Manchester, with the pair continuing the dispute on social media after the match
Gerwyn Price has dismissed the controversy surrounding the heated encounter between Luke Littler and Gian van Veen at the Premier League Darts in Manchester.
Littler, 19, was eliminated at the opening stage in a thrilling battle against his longtime youth darts adversary, after both competitors wasted match-winning opportunities before Van Veen ended his barren spell in the tournament, which had extended back to night four in Belfast.
The duo traded angry exchanges on the oche before the row escalated onto social media, with the 19-year-old responding to post-match remarks from the victor. After falling behind, the Warrington-born arrows ace was compelled to stage a fightback to equalise the match and force a decisive leg.
The two-time World Champion was alleged to have celebrated a wayward dart from Van Veen, following his own miss at D15, before making a crying motion towards the home supporters, yet it was the 23-year-old who eventually progressed.
Price said: “Things like this happen in darts, I’m sure in a couple of weeks it’ll be done and dusted, gone and we’ll move on.
“I’ve been in that situation, it’s part and parcel, in darts emotions are high, it’s a rollercoaster and people get hyped up.
“It is what it is. If you didn’t have that reaction, sometimes you need to be a little bit pee’d off and get those reactions otherwise, what’s the point?
“Do you not want to win that much? You’ll probably regret some of the things you do, or the reactions you have then you think about it tomorrow.
“But if you’re not up for it in the game, sometimes it happens. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, I’ve been there, the backlash of it, Luke will probably have it but in a couple of weeks, it’ll be gone.”
Price has found himself embroiled in several high-profile feuds throughout his Professional Darts Corporation career. The Welshman famously donned noise-cancelling headphones at the World Darts Championships.
Despite the controversy, Van Veen progressed to beat Josh Rock 6-3 in the semi-final but failed to find his form as the Iceman cruised to victory in Manchester.
Price, Jonny Clayton and Michael van Gerwen all hold places in the top four while Littler remains two points ahead at the top. Nevertheless, going into night 10 in Brighton, the heated row between the two talented throwers looks set to dominate proceedings.
Van Veen felt obliged to admit that some of his opponent’s conduct did “really annoy” him. Speaking after his quarter-final triumph, he said: “I’m on 90, I miss double 15 on the inside, and then I see him celebrating towards the crowd. I don’t think that’s normal.
“And then he also makes that crying gesture. He’s a fantastic darts player, but today he showed he’s not a good loser.
“Celebrating a miss from your opponent, that really annoys me. That’s why I gave him a look. The fact he then misses three darts at a double, that’s his problem.
“He was celebrating me missing double 15. That’s out of order. I was fuming about that and he missed three darts at double seven.
“Then he looked at me like I was the problem. He is probably fuming. That’s my perspective. His perspective is probably different.
“I love Luke to bits. All the attention he has brought to the sport is phenomenal, but today was my day.”
Littler fanned the flames of the row even further on social media, posting two screenshots to his Instagram story. The first displayed the 19-year-old’s already remarkable collection of accolades, alongside the message: “Goodnight, godbless thank you Manchester.”
He then followed this up with a post sharing Van Veen’s comments, to which he added three laughing emojis.