Inside Track: Littler had a sting in his tail for opponents

Mohammad Ali, in his days as Cassius Clay (or maybe it was the other way around), would tell us before he went out for a fight that he would ‘sting like a bee’. In his saunter to a second successive Word Darts title, Luke Littler was nearly stung by a wasp.

Well, not really. But he had to swap one away, just as many others among the 128 who lined up for the competition had to in the earlier rounds.

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It did nothing to knock the teenager off his game. His victory over Gian Van Veen was emphatic, much easier for him than his defeat of Michael Van Gerwen in last year’s final.

Littler got £1 million for his troubles, the game’s biggest ever pot. He remains the World No 1. And to think he has yet to reach his teenage years. It’s definitely become a young man’s game – defeated finalist Van Veen is just 23.

The championship was great television of the three weeks, spoiled only by Wayne Mardle whenever he was in the commentary box.

Aside from bombarding us with the most inane remarks, the five-time losing semi-finalist – as his caption reminded us – made no attempt to hide his bias in Van Veen’s second-last outing.

The Dutchman was up against the veteran two-time winner of the title, Gary Anderson, and though he led from start to finish, playing superb darts, had he been able to listen in to Mardle’s commentary, he’d have wondered where all the good scoring was coming from, and who exactly was in front.

The crowd wasn’t good to Van Veen, either. His shots at a double were roundly booed by sections of the Alexandra Palace rowdies.

But he shouldn’t have felt about it – and probably didn’t. Littler got the same treatment in his semi-final, this despite him being British and the youngest-ever winner of the title.

It was a throwback to golf in America last year, in particular when Rory McIlroy was playing. A hero with the crowd, shouts of “Rory. Rory” ringing in his ears as he drove, chipped and putted his way to victory in the Masters at Augusta, the Bangor Boy was then the victim of the ugliest some Americans could throw at him in the Ryder Cup.

It’s all so different now in darts from when the game was first shown on television. Back in the day, when Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson, John Lowe and the rest were vying for championship wins, most of the throwers would have pints on hand, and, in some cases, cigarettes in hand, and the referee would call for silence when the players were at the oche.

Now it’s quite the opposite. Players drink only water, there’s no smoking, and the crowd can be as raucous as they like, when they like.

Lowe was in the Blue Anchor a good few years back, throwing with the deadly accuracy that won him the World title three times as he faced up to local challengers.

At the tail end of next month, Johnny Clayton, who got to the quarter-finals of this year’s championship, will be in the Clan na Gael Hall.

The format may be the same, though it’s probable his opponents will be looking for an ‘odgins’, the word we used way back when someone was given a head-start in races.

When Lowe and the rest were in their pomp, one of the big competitions was The News of the World. It was carried on ITV on a Saturday afternoon, and not only did local man, the late Jim McQuillan, acquit himself well in it, he won comment – from Dickie Davies, back in the studio – for his attire, a snow white shirt and a colourful tie.