Luke Littler’s former darts coach has revealed that he had to “get rid of” the World Championship finalist from his academy before the 17-year-old became a household name.
Littler is in another Alexandra Palace final, 12 months after losing to Luke Humphries on his tournament debut, with the teenager now set to face three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen.
His rise has been remarkable, but those who knew Littler while he was playing in youth matches believed that he was destined for the top, even though it forced him to be kicked out of his club.
When asked by the BBC how he handled Littler as a promising star, Karl Holden of St Helens Darts Academy said: “It might sound bad but we sort of got rid of him out of the academy.
“He knows we didn’t mean that in a nasty way, but it was more like ‘Don’t come here no more you’re just too good’. When he was 13 he was just too good for the Under-21s. He was never going to achieve anything there so we were saying ‘Go and beat all the men in the world’. And that’s what he’s doing, hopefully tonight, every one of them.”
When asked what makes a champion at the highest level, Holden explained: “You need bottle, you need composure, you need to put the hours in as well. He has spent thousands of hours losing against proper seasoned competitors in darts and county players.
“You need to learn to win and to win you have got to learn to lose, and when you lose you don’t like it. That’s when you start winning.
“If you know you have to hit that double, if you’ve not got the confidence then [you’re] done. You need to hit that double or you won’t hit it in darts, you simply won’t do it.”
Holden coached Littler since he was nine years old and admitted that it would be a “dream” to watch the Warrington star become world champion on the Ally Pally stage.
“Hopefully he can go that one better this year because I do believe he is better than last year,” Holden added. “Everybody can’t wait for it because I think them two are the two best players of this tournament.
“Every dart player has a dream to be world champion but I think I’m well past that stage now so I think for our committee, [at St Helens Darts Academy] it’s a dream for us to produce a world champion, I don’t think there can be a better feeling than that.”
And even though he was kicked out of his darts academy, just a few years later Littler is vying for the sport’s biggest prize – the Sid Waddell Trophy.
He is favourite to beat Van Gerwen on Friday night and Littler knows he has the backing of his former club, even though they forced him to cut ties with their outfit.
