Luke Littler was jeered heavily by the Rotterdam crowd following his earlier bust-up with Gian van Veen and responded with a gesture
Luke Littler told the Premier League Darts crowd in Rotterdam to ‘calm down’ with a gesture during his semi-final victory over Luke Humphries. The teenager had been heavily booed throughout Night 11 in the Netherlands following his altercation with Gian van Veen earlier this month and went on to lose 6-4 to Jonny Clayton in the final.
During Night 9 of this year’s Premier League, Littler clashed with Van Veen when the pair met in the quarter-finals. The score stood at 5-5 and the Dutchman had a match dart on double 15 but narrowly missed.
Littler appeared to celebrate the error, prompting Van Veen to stare him down, and the 19-year-old responded with a ‘crybaby’ gesture before losing 6-5 in Manchester. Both players have since offered their accounts of the incident, and Littler was met with a torrent of boos during his opening match of the evening against Price in Rotterdam.
When Littler then faced Humphries in the following round, he finally responded to the jeering. In the fifth leg, Littler missed a dart at double 20, and the crowd’s boos intensified, but as he finished the leg with his next dart, he chose to hit back.
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READ MORE: Gian van Veen hits back at Luke Littler excuse after furious row with darts rivalREAD MORE: Luke Littler sent ominous warning after Gian van Veen called his behaviour ‘out of order’Littler was spotted moving his hand up and down towards the crowd after he pinned the leg-winning double, signalling for them to ‘calm down’.
Wayne Mardle on commentary remarked: “‘Calm down pals, calm down.’ Before the Gerwyn Price game he said, ‘I will not react.’ Well he has just reacted to somewhere there and they don’t like it.”
One supporter speaking to Sky Sports ahead of Littler’s final showdown with Clayton, which he lost 6-4 despite landing seven 180s, said: “The Netherlands don’t like Luke Littler, so I hope the Ferret [Clayton] is going to win.”
Littler gave his account of events regarding what occurred with Van Veen earlier in the week. He told Online Darts: “What other people didn’t see was, as I’ve walked back around, I’m still looking that way [to the crowd] and he’s put his darts down but no one sees that.
“I think he’s the one who’s not doing his job, obviously being respectful. I think that’s the first-ever time I’ve seen someone put their darts down in front of my face.
“I was like, ‘why?’ And obviously I come inside [the double to win the match]. I called him a cry baby because there was no need for it. There was no need for him to put his darts down. When he won, I picked my darts up and I said, ‘well done, you got the win’.
“From my point of view, I’m looking up at the TV, I’m just thinking in my head, ‘he’s not going to miss. Even if he gets a shot at the bullseye, Gian’s one of the best bull hitters in the game’.”
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