Luke Littler caught a stray from Gerwyn Price at the European Darts Trophy despite not even competing in the event. Price extended his dominant head-to-head record against Ryan Searle in the second round and drew parallels to another player he’s had the better of over the past 12 months.
Price has been in brilliant form since the turn of the year and he produced another ton-plus average to down Searle 6-4 in Germany. Afterwards, ‘The Iceman’ was informed that he had won his last six matches in a row against ‘Heavy Metal’. He then pounced on his opportunity to take a cheeky pop at Littler, while insisting that paying no attention to those stats is one of the secrets behind getting the better of him.
“Six on the spin,” said Price. “You sure his name is not Luke? I’m only joking! I don’t look at how many times I’ve beaten players. I get up here and play every player the exact same. That is why I have beat Luke so often.
“I just get up here and concentrate on my own game. If the crowd are behind me like they are today, it’s brilliant and I end up winning matches.”
Just like against Searle, Price has won his last six consecutive meetings with Littler on a run stretching back to last April. His latest triumph secured a nightly Premier League Darts victory in Nottingham earlier this month.
While Price is eager to remind Littler about his recent head-to-head superiority, the Welshman is adamant it’s only because ‘The Nuke’ is destined to achieve great things. “I wanted to get another win over Luke,” Price told Sky Sports in Nottingham.
“He’s the best player in the world at the minute, and he’s going to be for some years. I praise him every single day. I think he’ll beat Phil Taylor’s record of 16 world titles.
“There is nobody in the PDC at the minute who can stop him, there’s only JDC [Junior Darts Corporation] players that can stop him. We can’t stop him. He’s going to get better and better.”
Price plays Dutch youngster Wessel Nijman in the last 16 of the European Darts Trophy later this afternoon (Sunday). Littler decided to skip the event, but the likes of Rob Cross, Michael van Gerwen, Luke Humphries and Gary Anderson are all still in the hunt.
