Online Reporter
LUKE LITTLER dramatically sealed his spot at the Players Championship Finals at the eleventh hour and joked: “Pressure…what pressure?”
The Nuke’s chances of making the £600k major at Butlins Minehead was looking bleak at the start of the day.
And he hit out at critics on social media who doubted he’d make the top 64 and stand a chancde to win the £120,000 top prize starting November 21.
His shock first round loss to Ritchie Edhouse yesterday left him at least £2,500 short of qualifying with just three events remaining. But on Wednesday in Wigan he went all the way to the final and won to bag £15,000 and stamp his ticket to Minehead.
Afterwards he said: “I am on social media.“
Lots of people were saying that I wasn’t going to make it. “There you go, I’ve won today.”He also took aim at critics who slammed him for entering the World Youth Championship, where he lost to Beau Greaves hours after winning the World Grand Prix.
He added: “The likes of Gian van Veen, tour card holder, Keane Barry, tour card holder, but I’m the one who gets it in the neck. “I didn’t win, so obviously a lot of people were happy.
“I just thought I’d come and get used to playing first to five and first to six. That’s what I did today and yesterday.”
Littler, 18, beat Dylan Slevin, Jeffrey de Graaf and whitewashed Adam Lipscombe to ease into the fourth round in Wigan.He then came from 3-0 down against Adam Hunt before roaring back with consecutive finishes of 130, 120 and 146.
Littler fell behind to Rhys Griffin before coming back to set up a mouth-watering semi-final with Premier League rival Stephen Bunting.
In a high-class match where Bunting’s 107 average was bettered by Littler’s 109, the world champ took out 164 to move a leg from the final and finished it by taking out 97 with a bizarre 25-D18-D18 checkout that even left Bunting laughing.
The Nuke then upped his average to 111 to beat surprise finalist, world No140 Dennie Olde Kalter 8-2.
He reacted to the victory on social media by posting an image of the results with the caption “pressure… what pressure”.
Littler had left himself with a lot of work to do after regularly skipping events throughout the season to manage his busy schedule. His win was his first Players Championship title in 2025.It saw him jump up to 34th in the rankings – guaranteeing him a spot at the finals next month with just two events left.
The winner of the Players Championship will pocket themselves a cool £120,000. T
hat prize money would be enough to see Littler jump above Luke Humphries in the PDC world rankings. But he could get there even sooner and go into Minehead as world No1.
His first chance to officially overtake Humphries is at the European Championship later this month.The top prize in Dortmund is £120,000, which would see Littler leapfrog his pal.Humphries has £25,000 won in 2023 dropping off his ranking too, so even if he banked the £60,000 runner-up prize he would fall to No2 if Littler won.
Littler has already earned £1,680,500 in prize money, just £57,750 short of Humphries’ total. —Sun.
Mathew Masinge