LUKE Littler’s place in the PDC Premier League play-offs is now mathematically secure.
And he took a giant step closer to making sure he finishes the league phase in top spot after continuing his fine form on Night 14 in Aberdeen.
A fourth nightly win in his debut tournament took the Warringtonian’s current winning streak to 12 matches having won in Littler last week and taken home the Austrian Darts Open title at the weekend.
For the second week in a row, the 17-year-old beat Rob Cross in the final having earlier smashed Michael Smith in the semis, which followed a last-leg decider win over Nathan Aspinall.
With two nights of the league phase remaining, Littler is now eight points clear of second-placed Luke Humphries and is guaranteed to finish no lower than second regardless of what happens next week in Leeds and on Night 16 in Sheffield.
Littler bests Cross again
Littler hammered Cross 6-2 in last week’s final in Liverpool and when he took out 78 to break “Voltage” in the opening leg, another procession looked on the cards.
However, Cross proved a much more difficult proposition this time around and a 117 checkout allowed him to break straight back before holding throw to take a 2-1 lead.
He sensed another opportunity against the throw in leg four, but Littler checked out 107 to level at 2-2 before breaking again to assume control.
Back came cross and another break of the Littler throw brought the match back on darts and when the Essex man held in the next, Littler was up against it.
However, Littler picked his moment to reel off three straight legs and take home another trophy.
Littler blows Smith away to end 'hoodoo'
Smith has had the Indian sign over Littler in this year’s Premier League, with four of their five meetings in the short format going the way of the St Helens man, all of them in different countries – England, Wales, Ireland and the Netherlands.
Very quickly, though, it became abundantly clear there would not be a fifth as “Bully Boy” was powerless to resist a dominant Littler.
If none of his shots at double were going in earlier in the night against Aspinall, Littler suddenly couldn’t miss to the point where the first closing shot he missed was his first match dart.
By that point, he was 5-1 up and a crushing victory was secured with the very next dart after less than 10 minutes on stage.
A stunning checkout of 144 in leg three was a sign of things to come and once he cleaned up 87 to break Smith’s throw in the next, the writing was on the wall.
Checkouts of 124 and 105 in the next two showed signs of his very best and he finished the match with a superb average of 110.
'Déjà vu' against Aspinall
Littler and Aspinall played out a thriller in Liverpool, and this meeting again went the distance in similar circumstances.
Having battled back from the brink last week, this time it was Littler who passed up the opportunity for a more comfortable victory thanks to a profligate display on the doubles.
Indeed, by the time Aspinall had come back from 5-3 down to send the match to a deciding leg, the teenager had converted just five of the 22 shots he had at finishing legs - a quite remarkable figure considering what would happen later in the evening.
Six of those came in the very first leg, allowing Aspinall to escape with a hold and the match then went on throw until the seventh when Littler found what looked to be a decisive break to go 4-3 up.
He consolidated that with a hold to go 5-3 up, but he then missed three darts at double 15 for the match and allow Aspinall to sneak back in.
Littler found his range in the decider with three 140s but had to survive a match dart as Aspinall just missed tops for a stunning 160 checkout, allowing Littler to convert his seventh match dart.
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