Luke Littler beat Raymond van Barneveld at the World Series of Darts and held his arm aloft despite being told to ‘f*** off’ by the legendary Dutchman earlier this year.
Littler blocked out a hostile atmosphere in Amsterdam as the pro-Barney crowd made their feelings known. An epic showdown culimated in the 17-year-old reaching the quarter-finals, with a ton-plus average carrying him to a 6-4 victory.
In the immediate aftermath, Littler took Van Barneveld’s hand, turned towards the audience and held his arm aloft as a show of respect for the player who, he claims, was his childhood inspiration.
Much was made of Littler’s fondness of Van Barneveld before they faced off at the World Darts Championship last December. Littler won that clash and made it all the way to the final before going on a tear in his first few tournaments of the year.
A win over Rob Cross in the final of the Belgian Darts Open prompted a text message of congratulations from Van Barneveld. But the 57-year-old was left raging when Littler blanked him.
“I understood then that I am his example,” Van Barneveld told Sportnieuws.nl. “That at the World Championship you don’t chat I can understand, but other tournaments… The other day I walked up to him to shake his hand. Then he took out his earphone for a moment and only said the most necessary thing.
“He told me: ‘Yes, I only respond to text messages. Whatsapp I’m actually not on’. Well fine, I sent a text message saying ‘Congratulations with Wieze’, and then nothing. Fine. I’m a bit done with it. The next time I get asked if I want to do something for him, I’ll pass.
“I understand that you get thousands of text messages but of course I’m not just anyone. If I’ve been your inspiration for years, I also expect a text message back. Dude’s on his phone all day, f*** off.”
Littler set up his Amsterdam showdown with Van Barneveld by beating Ross Smith in a tight showdown on Friday. And the teenage sensation wants to kick on by clinching the £80,000 top prize on his World Series debut.
“I enjoyed Bahrain and won my first PDC title and then won in Poland, so it shows why I should be No 1 seed,” he said. “I’d love to win this one as the No 1 seed and go into the autumn with a win.”
