“For Luke it’s obviously very tough to play a Premier League night and then go to a European Tour event,” conceded Nijman. “For me, this is like being in darts heaven! I took my chances tonight and I’m very happy with the win.

“Playing Luke on the Friday and then Michael (van Gerwen) on the Saturday – it doesn’t get any bigger, but if I play my own game I know I can make it tough for Michael tomorrow night.”

On Friday morning, Littler took to Instagram to share his early start, taking a photo of his journey to Germany at 4.20am and similarly downbeat captioned the pic: “The joys of the Euro tour”, with the teen in need of some rest going into the Premier League play-offs.