I watched Luke Littler stage epic comeback, reel in big fish and come out top dog: My Premier League of darts verdict from Glasgow

GlasgowWorld

Our reporter, Ben Banks, reports from the Premier League of darts rolling into the Hydro on Thursday night.

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to Glasgow World's Night at the Darts. My name is Ben Banks, the Deputy Sports

00:06Editor for the site and I'll be taking you behind the scenes and into the heart of the action

00:11at the Hydro on Thursday evening as night two of the BET MGM Premier League of Darts

00:17kicks off in the city. We've got the likes of Luke Littler, Michael Van Gerwen, Rob Cross,

00:22Luke Humphries, Chris Stobie, Stephen Bunton, Gerwin Price and Nathan Aspinall all in action

00:29to see who comes out on top on night two after the Premier League kicked off in Belfast where

00:34former world champion Luke Humphries prevailed in the final over Chris Stobie. I'll be world

00:39champion Luke Littler that begins tonight's proceedings against Rob Cross. A few different

00:45bits of interest going into this, Gerwin Price and Rob Cross in good form heading into this,

00:50Luke Humphries winning night one in Belfast and of course lots of eyes on the teenage sensation

00:56Littler after winning the world championship at the start of the year. Set to be an interesting

01:02night, we've got accreditation for it so we'll be taking you to the Hydro, we'll be leaving

01:06just shortly to take our seats for the event and we'll be sharing with you bits of content from

01:13the Hydro and bits of post-match as well from the winner of the night and whatever else we

01:19can get our hands on so stay tuned and let's see what the night brings.

01:49Backstage here, about five minutes to go until Luke Littler versus Rob Cross. I'll be interested to see who

02:04comes out on top of this, Rob Cross in very decent form winning the Players Championship

02:08event earlier this week but as we know Luke Littler, never a man to be underestimated in

02:13this type of arena on the big stage so we'll see how he gets on. Well that was some way to

02:19kick off the night, Rob Cross 5-1 up but Luke Littler pulling him back to win 6-5. He did feel

02:24for Rob Cross a wee bit, he seemed in the ascendancy but the crowd got right behind Luke Littler and he

02:29produced some pretty incredible darts towards the end of that, reeling off 180s at will, probably

02:34averaged over a tonne between the sort of 5-1 deficit and by the time he brought it back to 6-5

02:39so we'll catch up with this at the end of the quarterfinal legs and then we move into the

02:43semi-finals with Luke Littler the first of the night through to the last four. Well we're about to move

02:48on to the semi-finals, Michael Van Gerwen will play Luke Littler in the first of the final four

02:54pretty much dismantling Stephen Bunton after a pretty special walk-on from the bullet but wasn't

03:00enough to see him through. Gerwen Price edging out Nathan Aspinall before Luke Humphries took care

03:05of Chris Dobbie, two close encounters those ones. The first of which will see a rematch of the World

03:11Championship final between Littler and Van Gerwen before Humphries takes on Price to see who meets

03:16in the final. We'll check back in once those news have been completed. A slightly-ish different

03:20background this time but we have our final, Luke Littler playing Luke Humphries. Luke Littler in

03:26full control against Michael Van Gerwen, a 6-2 victory with real ease, really playing some of

03:31his best stuff and Luke Humphries just about getting past Gerwen Price as well so we now move on to the final.

03:37World Championship, it's been an interesting TV view especially that everyone seems to be finding

03:41their best and is that one frustrating but two is it also a mark of respect you've got this big

03:46target on your back that people are raising their game to beat you in the way they are?

03:50Yeah it's obviously it's good for the people watching, the people in the fan, in the crowd

03:54but for me it's not good because you've got to find it as well as them. Even against Rob I heard

04:01he was 5-1 up with 110 and to fight back against that which he did was unreal but I know

04:08I feel like saying if my opponent's going to hit another 10 plus average.

04:12When you completed that comeback against Rob did you really feel that it could be your night?

04:16I wouldn't say it could be my night, I was just happy with some points on the board and

04:20that first win in the Premier League and then obviously I was confident against Michael which I

04:26did go on and win and then obviously got the win against Luke but throughout the night I didn't

04:31feel that confident to go on and win it but I did. Is it important for you having come this far after

04:37being world champion to actually win a tournament and you had some stick on social media this week

04:42saying people sort of doubting you and people doubted you last year in this as well and you

04:45reacted to it is it nice to go I'm still here? Yeah I'm going to be here for a long 16 weeks

04:51hopefully 17 but as a player you just got to keep getting these wins hopefully week in week out

04:58and yeah just hopefully get to that number two. Is there a part of you as well that keeps wanting

05:03to prove people wrong even though we all know you're established and you're now world champion

05:07is there still part of you thinks you still need to sort of show what you're all about?

05:11Yeah I think I've shown all I've got, I have to win the world but I'm not going to win every

05:18every Premier League night so people are going to have to get used to me losing

05:22especially for me but at the minute I'm a winner. Luke just on that point there you said people need

05:28to get used to you losing, when you do lose a match is it easier to sort of put it out of your

05:32mind and focus on the next one or do you sort of dwell on it a little bit? It depends as I've always

05:38said it to myself if I play well and I lose then fair enough but if I play bad and lose then

05:46yeah it's not ending well backstage. Does it almost need to hurt a little bit so you can kick on

05:51that's what the best do, the best don't like to lose do they? No especially myself but we know

05:59we know we're going to lose at some point but on that game last weekend to Michael

06:04you either laugh or you're going to cry. Luke what about tonight then, after tonight do you sit down

06:12and do you analyse the matches you've played tonight and try and work out how you could

06:18improve it for the next match that you're coming up? Probably not, every week's different

06:26every well I'll say crowd but they're all good they're all going to be good for the next 16 weeks

06:32it's just a case of now chilling, chilling out on the weekend off and then going over to Dublin

06:38Wednesday. Dark swap obviously remember last year when you went to these originally you were like

06:44I'm not using these again what made you change and go hang on I'll give them another go then

06:49because you were adamant you wouldn't use them on TV again? Yeah first pro tour bad and I just

06:56thought Tuesday let's just get the gold ones out have a bit of practice and see what goes on

07:00I played okay with them and I brought them here and I've won. And that is us for our night at the darts

07:07recording this finale in the car because boy did Glasgow bring the noise, the whistles as well

07:13the players certainly found that a challenge at times, the referee called for the whistles to

07:18stop during the final between Luke Humphries and Luke Littler which Luke Littler eventually

07:22prevailed 6-5 in and it only made it worse it was like the old school boy type stuff if you know

07:27if you tell me not to do something I'm going to do it even louder than what you said so

07:31yeah and a weird final I don't think either player was at their sparkling best but they found the

07:36bits of form when they needed to, a lot of holds a throw when one got a break another broke back

07:41and Littler eventually got over the line speaking pretty confidently as you heard there in his

07:46post-match media interviews a really interesting look behind the scenes at how the big Premier

07:51League nights work in the PDC from people I've been speaking to behind the scenes it's a totally

07:57different ball game to what it was maybe even a few years ago a lot of that is down to Luke Littler

08:03one thing that a lot of people said to me was how noticeable it was the amount of young fans in

08:07attendance all with Luke Littler shirts in the most part and that just wasn't happening there

08:12was a very clear demographic in the Dartmoor arenas probably post pre-covid but since then

08:19you've got the likes of Stephen Bunton who's taking a very social media friendly approach

08:23a lot of these guys on social media sort of displaying themselves as people as well as

08:26darts players now it's a very different sport and you can feel that in the crowd as well it's maybe

08:31it was maybe a wee bit less rowdy than I thought it was going to be darts crowds maybe get a bit

08:35of a bad rap at times for things in the past but a very good night I really enjoyed it really good

08:40insight behind the scenes as well at how it all works and you know a big sold out crowd as well

08:46in the most part crowd behaved itself a couple of wee moments Gerwin Price certainly let the

08:50crowd know about it I thought that was quite funny during his semi-final match but some decent

08:55performances Stephen Bunton I think maybe you know it could be a big week for him in Dublin

08:59starting to get off the mark Luke Littler was a bit frustrated last year it took him time to get

09:04his first nightly win he gets it in week two you'd imagine that stands him in good stead

09:09Chris Dobie as well continuing to trundle along quite nicely final last week got through a game

09:14this evening pushed Luke Humphries close so he's in good form as well Rob Cross will be very

09:19disappointed by how he lost that quarterfinal to Luke Littler but the crowd very much played a part

09:23in that one and didn't seem to cope too well with it but he has had a really good week so perhaps

09:30just a blip for him this has been Glasgow World's Night at the Darts at the Ovo Hydro my name's Ben

09:36Banks and I hope you've enjoyed

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