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How darts sensation Luke Littler proves pubs matter

By James Evison

Despite being only 16 years old and unable to buy an alcoholic drink (without a meal), the epic rise of darts player Luke Littler has illustrated the critical role of pubs in the community.

(Image: Twitter/X/@PDCEurope)

He may not have been able to beat Luke Humphries last night (3 January) — which is not anything to be ashamed of, considering he is the number one player in the world — but Littler’s run is historic in itself, and a fantastic illustration of how pub entertainment can literally breed elite sportspeople.

There were two videos did the rounds on social media especially, following Littler’s win in the semi-finals over Rob Cross, who was himself a previous winner of the PDC World Darts Championship in 2018, when he beat Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor.

One of the videos was at Littler’s local pub The Windle in St Helens. Here, he had been a regular darts thrower, as part of his apprenticeship at the St Helens Dart Academy. The other video was of the team at the Runcorn Golf Club bar, home to his current pub darts team, ‘The Bogey Flickers’, who jumped for joy at his victory.


His darts team even reminded the teenage sensation that he was due to play in a pubs darts tournament this week, which could be a challenge considering his world title run.

Following the smoking ban and the rise of cheap off-trade alcohol sales, wet-led community pubs have had to adapt, and across the country darts has played a vital role in the survival of the on-trade in the last decade. Littler is a great example of the shift to encouraging younger people into the ‘adult space’ of pubs. Indeed, another picture which went viral on social media yesterday was of fellow finalist Luke Humphries taking on the-then 12 year old Littler at another pub tournament in Hayling Island, again illustrated this change of attitudes perfectly.

Stories across the last few weeks of the championships have highlighted how Littler’s parents took him to pub tournaments from an early age, and he trained as often as much as five times a week. Last night, Jeremy Clarkson also got involved, in a cheeky tweet to promote his recently released 0.3% Hawkstone Lager.

Speaking to the BBC, Littler said of the importance of pubs in his career: “From the age of 18 months I’ve just been non stop and then by the age of four I got onto the proper board. When we moved to Warrington when I was eight or nine, we started going out to pubs four or five times a week and I was just non-stop.”

This would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Pubs were legally ‘out of bounds’ for under-14s until 1995, and teenagers and children were frowned upon until much more recently. In fact, a-board signs still exist across the UK which state rules such as ‘no under-12s after 7pm’.

A couple of weeks off 17 years old, he has is still not legally able to buy a drink, and its possible he could still be world champion before that is the case, should be win next year.

Although, it should be noted, he can buy a drink with a meal; perhaps a doner kebab (his favourite) or a pizza or omelette, which he has also highlighted a preference for.

But whatever Littler gets stuck into, without pubs his victories would have been unattainable.

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