This blog is an explosion of happiness for Littler, a paeon of praise for darts and an attempt to get the majority of my friends and family – to see why I love the game, the man and his achievement.
Starting 27 years ago , I was taken to watch the darts at the Lakeside by a group of actuaries. The event was organised by Steve Mingle and included a lot of people who are now at the end of their careers or enjoying proper pensions. I mention Steve Mingle because he was the inspiration for everything. He and the actuaries made if clear that despite the large amounts of alcohol being disposed of, we could use the arrows to narrow our errors.
There was no Littler in those days, most of the leaders wore bellies and associated more with those out front than they do today. Money was smaller and the event was held together by the magnificent commentary of Sid Waddell who died in 2012 and Wayne Mardle who has succeeded him.
I couldn’t throw a dart , do the maths (like the boys) and I didn’t know the language but I am glad I went. I and my partner are TV fans and we try to get to the concessional event. It really shocked me last year and this when the wonderful Luke Littler appeared in the final. People in my family and my post friends laugh at me and I don’t understand.
If you don’t see in Luke Littler good news for the future of darts and indeed of a new generation of kids borne this side of the millennium – why not?
He made me laugh, under the covers in the hospital when he showed he wanted to be adult personality of the year (he is young personality of the BBC). I love the way he and Michael van Gerwen were friendly to the end.
What is wrong with people getting behind this 17 year old- 18 later in the month? Isn’t he making generations numerically literate? Isn’t he showing that you can come from Warrington and Runcorn and show us what great places they are? Isn’t he able to make us feel proud for his generation and his generation proud of themselves?
It strikes me that the negative responses I get to these questions are from people who have been entitled to all the things that Littler hasn’t been. Last night, my family were watching Newcastle v Harlequins on the TV when they could (like me on my phone) have watched Littler’s 7-3 destruction of MVG.
So I will leave it there. It is time that we recognise that darts is a tremendous sport loved by millions. Littler’s semi final trouncing got the highest watcher- ship (3.7m) of any non-football sport. Professional footballers were spotted in the audience (Maddison included) last night and I look forward to reading that the 3.7m has been broken.
If I ran an actuarial company that wanted ordinary people to understand how to make decisions I would be beating a path to the darts managers – people love this game and they are the people we need. Luke Littler is the leader at 17 of a type of person I would like to have as a grandchild!
