Luke Littler puts on ‘rusty’ display with new darts as world champ edges out Lourence Ilagan to set up Gerwyn Price tie

LUKE LITTLER produced a “rusty” display with his new darts in his first game since becoming world champion.

But The Nuke warned his oche rivals that he plans to end 2025 with MORE titles and by throwing a RECORD number of nine-darters.

Luke Littler beat Lourence Ilagan in the Bahrain Masters

xLittler was using new darts for the Bahrain Masters[/caption]

Five days before his 18th birthday, Littler opened his defence of the Bahrain Darts Masters with a 6-3 win over Lourence Ilagan from the Philippines.

Apart from a 142 checkout to win leg eight, the teen sensation suffered a mid-game wobble in which The Gunner threatened to make it a much closer battle.

But Littler progressed to a quarter-final showdown on Friday with Gerwyn Price, using new equipment after deciding to frame the ones he threw to lift the World Darts Championship on January 3.

Littler, supported by his mum and dad in the oil-rich nation, said: “I’m happy to get past that first game.

“There weren’t any nerves. A bit of rust. A fresh set of darts The ones I won the World Championship with are getting put away in a frame.

“It’s very hard to break in a new set of darts. I played alright in patches.

“There were some bad patches there. I did the right things at the right time and punished him. It would mean the world to retain this trophy.”

Littler’s first of 11 PDC titles came in this tournament 12 months ago and he loved being announced for the walk-on by MC John McDonald as the “newly-crowned champion of the world”.

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The Warrington ace, who has a special birthday to celebrate next Tuesday, hit a joint-record four perfect legs in the last calendar year but has vowed to do even better.

He said: “It feels crazy to be back in Bahrain. It was a fast year of 2024. I started 2025 in the best way possible by winning the Worlds.

“I want to say life is the same but it’s definitely not – it has changed. I relaxed after the final. This is it. It’s time now for the busy schedule.

“I want to win as much as I can. Obviously try to hit more nine-darters than I did last year. Win more titles than I did last year.

“I want to break the nine-dart record. Get those nine darters tallied up for my own records.

“I’m looking forward to not only being the world champion for the whole year.”

Price will be the next opponent over the best of 11 legs and the Iceman opened his account on Thursday with a 6-3 victory over Lok Yin Lee from Hong Kong.

The Welshman, who will revert back to his old darts for this clash, said: “All the pressure is on Luke. He’s the world champion, the world No.2, he has had a brilliant year.

“There’s no pressure on me. He’s expected to win. I’m here to upset the party.”

World no.1 Luke Humphries did not miss a checkout in his 6-0 win over Abdulla Saeed, who averaged a shocking 62.30.

Rob Cross was a big-name casualty of this World Series of Darts event as he was humbled 6-3 by the world No.94 Paolo Nebrida.

In terms of quality, it was a terrible match and the Filipino thrower averaged only 82.37 and needed 29 DARTS to win leg four.

Nebrida, 30, said: “I’m proud to win and I know there’s more to come. I felt good but Rob is a tough player. When my first dart goes in, I have a chance.”

Stephen Bunting says he felt nervous throughout his 6-2 win over Indian Nitin Kumar because he thought his hero Steven Gerrard was in the crowd.

But then he came off stage and discovered the Liverpool legend had not travelled from Saudi Arabia where he is a club manager.

Chris Dobey had no Hollywood drama as he was a 6-0 winner over Arabian slow-coach Basem Mahmood, who takes between 21 and 23 seconds to throw three darts.