Luke Littler will not be in action in the Netherlands for the time being. The 19-year-old Englishman has withdrawn from the Players Championship events in Den Bosch and is also absent from the entry list for the Dutch Darts Championship in Maastricht.
Littler was originally entered for Players Championship 29 and 30, scheduled for 22.09.2026 and 23.09.2026 in Den Bosch. After his 10-4 defeat to Jonny Clayton in the quarter-finals of the World Series of Darts Finals, however, “The Nuke” decided to skip the ProTour double-header.
That decision does not come entirely as a surprise. Ahead of the tournament in Amsterdam, Littler had already stated he would only play the Players Championships if he won the World Series of Darts Finals. In that scenario, he would have remained on course to become the first player ever to win all PDC majors in a single calendar year. His loss to Clayton ended that historic ambition.
As if that were not enough, the final entry list for the Dutch Darts Championship was also published on Monday. The Euro Tour event, held from 16.10.2026 to 18.10.2026 in Maastricht, will likewise proceed without the reigning world champion. Littler has not entered the Dutch event.
During the World Series of Darts Finals, the Englishman was frequently in the spotlight because of the atmosphere in AFAS Live. Against both Danny Noppert and Nathan Aspinall, he faced boos and whistles from the crowd. After his narrow win over Aspinall, Littler said he might boycott Dutch Euro Tours if supporters continued to behave that way.
Whether his absence in Maastricht is actually a consequence of those incidents remains unclear. Neither the PDC nor Littler has provided an explanation. It is therefore quite possible that, as previously planned, he simply did not intend to play the Dutch tournaments.
