Luke Littler during his World Darts Championship final win. (Image: Getty.)
has explained why he continuously looked to his dad in the Alexandra Palace audience during victory over .
The 17-year-old made sure to bring his family up on stage after becoming the youngest world champion in history, including dad Anthony, who played a crucial role in the match.
Anthony Buckley, a taxi driver from Warrington, and Littler’s mum Lisa put a dartboard in their son’s hand as an infant, and ever since, he has been hooked on the sport.
And at the showpiece match of the darts calendar, Littler could be seen making a clear effort to look at his family, and specifically his dad, during pressure points in the final.
Littler cruised to a 7-3 victory and led throughout, but relied on his father to keep control of his nerves and maintain calm despite being on the verge of making history.
“My dad looked so settled throughout the game,” Littler shared to the . “When I was looking over to him, he didn’t look nervous. So I knew myself that if he’s not nervous then I just need to play with freedom.
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Luke Littler embracing his mum and dad at Alexandra Palace. (Image: Getty)
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“I look at everyone who’s there. But he’s probably the main one. He said last night that he wasn’t nervous but at 4-0, he started to get that feeling in his stomach.”
On top of the encouragement that dad provided at Ally Pally, he was the one who convinced Littler to give up playing football at nine in order to solely focus on what has ended up becoming an extremely successful darts career.
Buckley told : “He was a good footballer. He loved football. All kids do. But I said to him at nine, hang your boots up.
“Concentrate on darts. You can still play football here and there. But if there’s a darts comp on at the weekends, go to darts first. Make that your priority, because I thought he could make it at darts — and he has done.
“When I said to him, you need to keep playing darts, he was OK with it. We put him in every competition that was online. Sometimes you’re getting up at 7am on a Saturday — my only day off — just to play darts. There were no lie-ins.”
Littler immediately sought to include his family in the celebrations, as his brother joined mum and dad on stage to lift the trophy, while his sister opted to watch on from the crowd.
Littler was the following day, his brother’s birthday, who promised to celebrate for the 17-year-old.