Luke Littler once again failed to reach the final of the PDC World Youth Championship on Monday, eliminated in the semi-finals for the second consecutive year by the narrowest possible margin. This time, Cam Crabtree proved too strong, winning 6-5. On the Darts Draait Door podcast, Vincent van der Voort and Damian Vlottes mainly wondered whether Littler's limited match schedule is beginning to catch up with him.
Littler was naturally the main attraction at the World Youth Championship. The world number one reached the decisive stages of the tournament without too many problems, but faced a determined opponent in Crabtree in the semi-finals. The Englishman appeared close to victory when he led 5-4, but Littler forced a deciding leg with a 15-darter. At that point, it felt as though the top favourite would still prevail. "You think: now he is going to get past him," Vlottes said. That did not happen, however. Littler opened the deciding leg with scores of 97, 57, 100 and 31. Only then did he hit a 180. Crabtree took advantage and finished the match on double 12. "It is very strange that he does not win that final leg with his experience," Vlottes observed. Van der Voort mainly attributed it to Littler's current form. "Maybe he just isn't in form at the moment. He plays so little. When you are in form, everything goes right."
According to the former professional, the lack of match practice could be playing a role. Littler took his foot off the gas for an extended period after the World Matchplay. "But after the World Matchplay, he did almost nothing for a month. He rode every roller coaster in America and went on vacation. Then he came back and immediately won a Euro Tour. At that point, you thought: 'It's still there.' But after that, he really did stall." Van der Voort finds it striking how little Littler plays nowadays compared with the period before his breakthrough. "Maybe he is now being judged on the fact that he doesn't play enough darts. He's still only 19, of course. You'd still expect him to be developing." That development previously came partly through playing matches almost constantly. "If you look at what he was playing before he had a Tour Card, in his first year, he was throwing so much more. He played a lot of BDO events, MODUS weeks, Youth tournaments, JDC events. He was playing a tournament every week and now he does very little."
Van der Voort does not regard exhibition tournaments as a full replacement. "He simply plays darts very little. He does those demonstrations every now and then, but there you are actually taking more autographs and photos than actually being a darts player." At the same time, Van der Voort and Vlottes do not want to draw major conclusions too quickly. Since his spectacular breakthrough as a 16-year-old, Littler has experienced hardly any genuine dip in form. Van der Voort believes it is only natural that a weaker period will eventually arrive. "Let's start by saying that he rose to prominence at sixteen and we haven't experienced a rough patch from him yet. That is yet to come, and perhaps this is already it." Van der Voort is careful to leave room for doubt. In recent years, Littler has repeatedly shown that he can quickly rediscover his best level. "Maybe he will prove to us all that it wasn't for him and wipe the floor with everyone during the European Championship. That is still possible, of course. I don't think it's wise that he plays so little. But then again, who am I?"
The world champion's schedule leading up to the major tournaments also remains a major question mark. The Englishman skips many Players Championship events, making it difficult for Van der Voort to assess what his next step will be. "You can't expect anything from Littler, because you have absolutely no idea what he's going to do. He's skipping all the floor tournaments and suddenly he's competing here again. Is he really only going to play the Grand Slam and the European Championship from now on until the World Championship?" After a run of tournaments without a title, Van der Voort also believes Littler himself will be feeling the change in circumstances. "You can't tell me he isn't getting a little bit insecure about this. He just hasn't won three tournaments in a row now. It's been a while. That puts a lot of pressure on that World Championship." Whether it will actually come to that remains to be seen. Since his breakthrough, Littler has won almost constantly and could leave a poor spell behind just as quickly. For Van der Voort, however, one point remains clear: more match practice would do the 19-year-old Englishman no harm.
