Teenage prodigy Luke Littler is through to the semi-finals of the 2025 Betfred World Matchplay after an epic 16-14 battle with Andrew Gilding – a match that had the Ipswich man forever in the youngster’s rear-view mirror.
Not quite overtaken, not quite lost in the dust – just constantly looming, like a fly on the windscreen you can’t quite flick off.
Once again, The Nuke did what he was quite clearly engineered in a lab to do – win dart matches and obliterate records with frightening regularity. Just the 18 maximums tonight. A mere four more than anyone else has ever managed in a Matchplay quarter-final. Nice.
And yet, despite all that heavy artillery, he couldn’t quite shake off Goldfinger – who, true to his James Bond villain namesake, kept turning up with sinister intent and an unnerving lack of emotion.Unlike his previous scrap with Wattimena, Littler was never stuck behind the eight ball.
He didn’t go stratospheric either, but it was a properly grown-up performance. Gilding, for his part, spent most of the match chasing down his fellow Englishman’s darts – not literally, of course. He did bring his own, in case anyone was concerned.By the third set of ads, Luke had moved into a 12-8 lead. It looked done. But no.
The moment Littler reached 14 legs, Gilding remembered he’s quite good too and reeled off three on the spin with the casual demeanour that he was filling his supermarket trolley.Then it got tense. Very tense.
Gilding broke again to close the gap to 15-14. Normally, you’d expect nerves. Maybe a few fluffed lines. But this is Luke Littler – a teenager who seems to find high-pressure situations about as stressful as ordering a kebab.So, what did he do? Against the darts, in the biggest leg of the match, he calmly went 180–180–41, adding to his opening ton, for a ridiculous 11-darter to seal it.
Bang. Job done. Semi-final secured.And just to really twist the knife: he’s defending zero ranking money from 2023. Why? Because this time last year he wasn’t even in the tournament. Wasn’t even eligible. The rest of the field must be thrilled.After the match, I caught up with Luke Littler to get his take on how it went:
“I just wanted to put in a good performance. I knew it was going to be very tricky. In the back room, I was just trying to figure out how to get into some rhythm.”
Only a year and a half into his fledgling career, the lad from Warrington has done rather well. I had to ask if he still wakes up thinking, how the hell have I ended up here so quickly?
And given I was standing there with a mic and a question to ask, it seemed like the perfect moment.
“I’ve said it quite a few times – there’s not much time to look back at what I’ve done or even what I’m doing now. But deep down, I do know. And long may it continue.”
There’s a scene in The Inbetweeners where the lads are trying to outrun a French exchange student. Every time they look back – he’s still there. Relentless. Unshakeable. Since I know Luke’s a fan of the show, I had to ask – did tonight feel like that, with Gilding always chasing?
“Yeah, definitely. I had to dig deep, especially against the darts, and pull it out of the bag. I was happy to be in the lead, but then he got a bit of momentum. I think the crowd wanted it to go to a tie-break, but I had to do a professional job – and get it done in 11.”
That he did.
—–Ends—–
Images: T Lanning / PDC
