Luke Littler annoyed Michael Smith long before they were pro rivals (Image: Getty)
Former world champion has recalled how his first encounter with left a mighty impression long before he shot fame. There isn’t a darts player on the planet who doesn’t know of ‘The Nuke’ in 2024, but Smith’s first run-in came years before he ever stepped on a professional stage.
Both Littler and Smith will be among the favourites to take home the top prize at the 2025 , which gets underway on Sunday. Second seed Smith will face either Kevin Doets or Noa-Lynn van Leuven in the second round, while 2024 runner-up Littler will take on either Ryan Meikle or Fallon Sherrock when he enters the draw next Saturday.
Littler was well worthy of his victory when he beat ‘Bully Boy’ 11-4 to clinch the World Series of Darts crown in September. But Smith – who was crowned world champion in January 2023 – has told how the 17-year-old’s signature confidence was apparent even when he was barely out of primary school.
“He used to play in my town, in Saints [St. Helens],” he recounted on Wayne Mardle’s . “I used to play all the local leagues and stuff. I wouldn’t say I knew him personally, I just knew him from the leagues and that.”
This would have been around the time Smith, 34, started to make a real impact on televised events as he said Littler was “11 or 12” at the time. But what he lacked in experience, The Nuke more than made up for in gumption.
“So I remember once, it was in my mum’s pub, and it was the local knockout [competition]. And him and some lad were having a little bet who was going to be the first one to beat me. I played Luke in the first round – I beat him.
Littler defeated Smith to lift the World Series of Darts title this year (Image: Getty)
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“And then his mate he was betting, I ended up getting him in the final; I don’t think he had a 300 once, I beat him 6-0… it just annoyed me.
“Because, like, two kids were saying they were gonna beat me, and I was top eight in the world, in the , and two 12 or 13-year-old kids saying they were gonna smash me off the board. That was just the attitude he had.”
Smith told Mardle, 51, about his journey into darts and how he took up the sport properly after breaking his arm as a teenager. ‘Hawaii 501’ joked he didn’t have the same early start as Littler, who was playing “as an embryo”.
Mardle affirmed Smith’s summary of the player and said “he’s still got it [that same attitude] now”. And the pair agreed that lack of fear factor has only aided Littler in his career.
After surging onto the professional stage over the last 12 months, fans have seen clips of Littler in his nappies firing arrows at a practice board. And though he insists he doesn’t practice a lot, the prodigy is certainly reaping the benefits of that early introduction.
If Littler was willing to take bets on beating TV regulars while he was barely double digits in age, it’s little wonder the spotlight hasn’t fazed him as a professional. And in that sense, Smith is perhaps less surprised than any of his peers that the youngster has reached such heights in record time.