As the sporting world continues to marvel at and celebrate the exploits of teenage sensation Luke Littler, who seems to set new boundaries each time he steps onto the Oche, darts is moving into a new era with the emergence of young and even younger talent.
I first saw Littler in action in 2020 when he reached the final of the JDC Super 16’s where he lost to another young gun now on the Pro Tour, Keane Barry. Even then, at such a young age, it was clear to see how good these youths are, but even before that night on the Masters stage in Milton Keynes, I had witnessed the seismic shift the game is about to experience.
In 2019 I had been engaged to be the official photographer at a series of corporate darts tournament events organised , on behalf of software provider SAP, by company executive Matthew Jeffrey and Jon Archers Nevada Management, featuring a star studded array of the biggest names in the sport plus youngsters Beau Greaves and Leighton Bennett.
The Tournaments were held in London, Frankfurt and Prague in front of live audiences and streamed on the internet around the globe.
In London, within the walls of the historic Tower of London, with the Yeoman of the Guard in attendance, billed as ’The Power at The Tower-The Prince v The King’ Leighton Bennett took on Phil Taylor and pushed the 16 time champion of the world all the way before narrowly losing.
His efforts that evening caused ripples which were about to become shock waves, when less than 3 months later, the 13 year old schoolboy was drawn against the 16 time World Champion beneath the chandeliers in the grandeur of Frankfurt’s Palmengarten.
Playing with youthful freedom and without any sign of nerves ‘Boom Boom” took the game to the legendary Taylor, 45 years his senior, who had won his first world title 15 years before the lad from Lincoln was born.
It was a short format game and Bennett raced ahead and sensing a special moment, I decided to go for a wide angle shot and as the winning double nestled in the bed to seal a 4-1 win, Bennett turned and jumped for joy while “The greatest of all time”, who treats every match with equal importance, looked stunned at what had just happened.
The image and reports of Leighton’s win was splashed across the sports pages the next morning of many national newspapers and leading media outlets.
With Bennett and Littler now on the Pro Tour and both hitting 9 darters in their first floor event, I do not think it will be long before we see them playing each other in a final as they lead the charge of these new, young and fearless, hotshots.
Exciting times for the game lay ahead as we see the fruition of the Junior and Youth systems so championed by former World number one, Rod Harrington.
”It’s all about the Youth!” as “The Prince of Style ‘ would often say!
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Lawrence Lusitig is a former official PDC photographer who had a ring side seat to many of modern darts’ most iconic moments. For the technically minded this shot used a Canon 1DX Mk 11 with a 16-35mm lens at 23mm at f2.8 with a speed of 640th of a second at 3200 iso.
