Now that the rest of the world seems to have written something about the Luke Littler darts tournament PDC World Championships, here are my thoughts on the recent record-breaking Ally Pally event:
- Luke Littler was astonishing. It wasn’t a surprise that he was good, or that he won his first few matches, (respectfully noting the calibre and experience of his opponents), but his capacity to maintain such a standard for those later games, on that stage, with increasing pressure, was unbelievable
- There were some truly excellent matches; Smith v Dobey and Dolan v anyone stood out, but Cullen v Humphries was a game for the ages, in which it never ever seemed that Cullen was going to win. And then he didn’t
- This was a tournament of comebacks, none greater than Cross v Dobey, but Humphries looked buried against Pietreczko, and Hempel v Van de Burgh set the tone
- How must MVG be feeling, limply losing to an unfancied opponent with a 93 average? Others too may feel they missed a big chance to transform their next two years: not least Bunting, Schindler, Noppert, and Gurney. Cullen and Dobey both surely still feel sick
- The tournament continued to look and sound fantastic (well done all), notwithstanding an intriguing decision not to switch finals night comms at the mid-point. However, much one likes a commentator, the same voices for 11 sets is too much, especially when styles are similarly verbose
- The world needs more Mark Webster
- That the tournament was a huge success was confirmed by the unbelievable viewing figures for the last couple of days, possibly helped by the recent change in structure. A finish on 3 January has created the Microsoft Teams equivalent of a tungsten-based water cooler moment
- The Littler show masked the lack of final set thrillers (just one from Q-F onwards), and the dull dominance of the English: all 4 semi-finalists, and an English champion who beat 5 English players. Fortunately one of them was 16
- The lack of a Humphries v Van Gerwyn semi-final was a huge disappointment, with respect to the showy brilliance (at least on the oche) of Scott Williams
- Littler will, it would seem, move on quickly from that double 2 in the seventh set. Only Humphries could keep him close long enough to force a mistake (not the miss, but the long pause before it, to check his remaining score). Here’s hoping The Nuke has good people around him, to deal with what’s coming next
- If this is darts next era, then Humphries appears well capable of leading it. Throughout he said and did everything right. To become a first time World Champ and #1 in the same tournament is some achievement. Odd then, that he must accept his position as only the second most interesting Luke at the Palace this year.