Few facets of celebrity fascinate as much as the child star. The precocity of a young person deigning to be good at something before their due time intrigues.
It is wrapped in a strange jealousy, a reminder to us mere mortals of what we could have achieved if we had been particularly gifted, concentrated more on a vocation, or spent less time drinking down the park.
It can come with an imminent sense of tragedy, an almost hubristic expectation that if too much goes well for you at a young age, there is only disaster down the road. Sometimes that can feel as much as a wish from the onlooking public as it is a historical precedent.
Over the years, sport has seen its fair share of prodigies. Some go on to extensive success over decades, others fade into obscurity before they even reach their mid-20s.
Most sports are adapted to this idea and how it may or may not play out. It is an unfamiliar concept in darts where players have historically been closer to 40 than 20. It is one it is quickly having to adapt to as 18-year-old Luke Littler won his second World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace on Saturday night. He became just the fourth person to win two back-to-back and has never failed to reach the final in his three appearances. He also did it in an utterly dominant manner, leaving his opponent Gian van Veen to just stand there, smiling wryly.
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The strangeness is that for all his much mentioned age, Littler does not feel like a teenager. That is what has endeared him to the public, even if it can occasionally veer towards treating him as something of a circus act. His tribute to Anthony Joshua’s friends, who died this week, before saying Joshua’s catchphrase: “First time was so nice, I had to do it twice” summed up this dichotomy – an 18-year-old immersed in popular culture (his friend, the streamer and recently crowned King of the Jungle, Angry Ginge, was watching on) but also obviously well-polished. Sometimes you can only spot Littler’s youth when he is celebrating on stage.
The 23-year-old Van Veen is the far more childish figure. There is the gangly way that he holds himself in the way young men do, still figuring out how to fit into their bodies, and his insistence on sticking his tongue out when anything goes his way. Regardless of how both players are perceived, the fact remains that they were contesting the youngest ever World Championship final.
Van Veen had taken the first set, with a 116 check out on the way, evidence of the quality that the Dutchman possesses. From then on, however, it became the Littler show. The Ally Pally wasp did more to put off the World Champion than his opponent managed. When van Veen managed to smear some blood onto the dart board from a cut hand, it was almost too on the nose.
It has not necessarily been the easiest tournament for Littler, at least away from the dart board. He has learned how an adoring public can quickly turn cold and cruel. A sign in the crowd placed him above Donald Trump and Darth Vader as Villain of the Year, and he was gently booed by a few as he was asked for a final word to his fans in his victory interview. Darts is unique among sports in how involved the fans are, creating the narrative as much as reacting to the game. Littler’s biggest achievement might not be the trophy itself but how little his game appeared to be affected by his change in attitude of those watching.
“What now?” was the question he asked the crowd after he defeated Rob Cross, having been booed and jeered throughout the game. What now, indeed? Littler is clearly a level above everyone at the moment, reducing his matches to mere exhibitions. Van Veen has long been earmarked as a potential rival, with the two meeting at the 2023 World Youth Championship final.
“Are we looking at the future of the sport here tonight?” said the commentator that day, the kind of phrase that feels cliche in the moment, prophetic after it, particularly when those same two men are walking on stage ahead of the final at Ally Pally just two years later.
Littler himself did not hesitate when asked by Sky Sports ahead of the quarter-finals who would win between van Veen and his opponent from the 2023 World Championships final, Luke Humphries. He immediately backed the Dutchman to make it to the semi-finals, where van Veen played an extraordinary game against Gary Anderson – the last man to win the World Championships back-to-back – to set up the final against Littler. It is clear that he is aware that if there is to be a significant challenge to him, it looks set to come from the younger generation.
The reaction of the fans to Littler is also a reminder that darts might need that. The explosion of interest in the sport has taken place in a time where it has been unpredictable, providing five different winners in the previous five years. It thrives off the tight games and the upsets, as much as it does the pints and the fancy dress.
Phil Taylor, the rarefied type of player that Littler is now most regularly compared to, won his 16th World Championship at 53. It boggles the mind to consider how many that means Littler could win if a serious challenger does not arise. How much that might matter is something only time will tell. But Littler is no longer just darts’ first child prodigy. He is now firmly ensconced as the most dominant figure across the whole sport.
Photograph by Warren Little/Getty Images