Preview, game plan, how to watch and predict when Luke Littler returns to the stage

The Great Event

It says a lot about the new system in darts that Michael van Gerwen will not take a place on Saturday night at the World Championship.

Instead, Luke Littler will be the headliner at Alexandra Palace when he meets Ian White in their third meeting.

It has been an incredible 12 months for the 17-year-old who was in the midst of a run to the finals this time last year and established himself as one of the biggest names in the game despite his age.

Littler showed a level of aggression that was not seen in his opening match against Ryan Meikle last Saturday. He had completely missed the first three sets before turning around and producing an incredible 140.91 average in the fourth – the highest score in the history of the tournament.

WABINO HAS WON WITH A RECORD BREAKING SET 🤯

Eleven runners, eleven runners from Luke Littler as he clocked 140.91 in the final to beat Ryan Meikle.

Just crazy from this special talent 🙌

You’ve entered the third round! pic.twitter.com/0j9CQGYHKU

– PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 21, 2024

But he couldn’t finish his interview on stage, breaking down in tears and admitting that he was nervous.

That could prove to be a problem tomorrow, although they may be helped by the fact that they are playing a familiar face with White who also hails from the Littler town of Runcorn.

White, who defeated Ritchie Edhouse in the second round, used to compete with Littler’s grandfather in the North West.

The 54-year-old said: “When I first started playing darts, I played with his grandfather, Phil, in Runcorn.

“I used to beat him all the time. He played for Albion. Local groups. We used to play with him a lot. We used to make fun of each other.

“I’m looking forward to it. I’m in charge.”

Van Gerwen is not the force he once was and faces a test against Irish veteran Brendan Dolan in the evening’s two matches.

The Dutchman won 3-0 over James Burrell in the opener and showed flashes of brilliance that took him to three world titles.

“I think I’ve done well, but the tank is still full,” he said.

“I think I did enough, and that’s the only thing that matters, especially knowing that I didn’t have the best 12 months of my career.

“I like to play games like this. It gives me a lot of energy, and the situation scared me.”

Order of Play – all three round matches

Afternoon session (from 1230 UK time)
Ryan Joyce v Ryan Searle
Scott Williams to Ricardo Pietreczko
Nathan Aspinall v Andrew Gilding

Evening session (since 1900 UK time)
Chris Dobey v Josh Rock
Michael van Gerwen v Brendan Dolan
Luke Littler v Ian White

How to watch

The PDC World Championship is shown on Sky Sports in the UK.
You can watch the evening portion on Sky Sports Darts and the Main Event from 12:30 GMT. The evening section is on Sky Sports Darts and the Main Event from 1900.

Prophecies

The interest in Littler is not so much if he succeeds, but how he does it. He will have too much fire for White but his stunning strike against Meikle would be an eye-opener for his opponents.

If he can show the consistency he’s used to then normal activity will resume and his campaign will be back on track. If not, then serious doubts will be raised about his chances this year.

Van Gerwen may find it difficult against Dolan’s world record 30 but he should have enough to get over the line.

The evening’s episode begins with an interesting debate between Dobey and Rock. Dobey is the bookies’ favorite in the game but we like Rock to be a little upset.

In the evening session, all three matches should be tied.

But we’re going to beat Searle, Williams and Gilding.