Main Event
It says much about the new order in darts that Michael van Gerwen will not take centre stage on Saturday night at the World Championship.
Instead, Luke Littler will be the headline act at Alexandra Palace when he takes on Ian White in their third-round meeting.
It has been a remarkable 12 months for the 17-year-old who was midway through his run to the final this time last year as well as establishing himself as one of the biggest names in sport despite his tender years.
Littler showed a rarely seen vulnerability in his opening match against Ryan Meikle last Saturday, however. He was completely out of sorts for the first three sets before flicking a switch and producing an amazing 140.91 average in the fourth – the highest one-set average in the history of the tournament.
LITTLER WINS WITH A RECORD BREAKING SET 🤯
An eleven darter, a ten darter and an eleven darter from Luke Littler as he averages 140.91 in the final set to beat Ryan Meikle.
Simply ridiculous from this special talent 🙌
He’s into the Third Round! pic.twitter.com/0j9CQGYHKU
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 21, 2024
But he could not complete his on-stage interview, breaking down in tears and admitting he was suffering from nerves.
That may be a factor again tomorrow, although he could be helped by the fact he is playing a familiar face with White also hailing from Littler’s home town of Runcorn.
White, who beat Ritchie Edhouse in the second round, used to compete against Littler’s grandad in the north-west leagues.
The 54-year-old said: “When I first started in darts, I played against his grandad, Phil, in Runcorn.
“I used to beat him all the time. He played for the Albion. Local teams. We used to play against him loads of times. We had banter.
“I am looking forward to it. I cannot wait.”
Van Gerwen is not the force he once was and will have to navigate a tricky test against veteran Irishman Brendan Dolan in match two of the evening session.
The Dutchman was a convincing 3-0 winner over James Burrell in his opener and showed flashes of the brilliance that carried him to three world titles.
“I think in patches I did well, but the tank is still full,” he said.
“I think I did enough, and that’s the only thing that matters, especially knowing that I didn’t have the best 12 months of my career.
“I love to perform on stages like this. It gives me a lot of energy, and the atmosphere definitely gave me goosebumps.”
Order of Play – all third round matches
Afternoon session (from 1230 UK time)
Ryan Joyce v Ryan Searle
Scott Williams v Ricardo Pietreczko
Nathan Aspinall v Andrew Gilding
Evening session (from 1900 UK time)
Chris Dobey v Josh Rock
Michael van Gerwen v Brendan Dolan
Luke Littler v Ian White
How to watch
The PDC World Championship is being screened on Sky Sports in the UK.
You can watch the afternoon session on Sky Sports Darts and Main Event from 12:30 GMT. The evening session is on Sky Sports Darts and Main Event from 1900.
Predictions
The fascination with Littler is not so much if he will win, but how he performs. He will have too much firepower for White but his surprising bout of nerves against Meikle would have been an eye-opener for his rivals.
If he can display he accustomed composure then normal service will be resumed and his campaign will be back on track. If not, then more doubts will be raised as to his chances this year.
Van Gerwen could find it difficult against world number 30 Dolan but ought to have enough to get over the line.
The evening session opens with an interesting clash between Dobey and Rock. Dobey is the bookmakers’ favourite for the match but we fancy Rock to cause a minor upset.
In the afternoon session, all three matches should be close affairs.
But we are going for wins for Searle, Williams and Gilding.
