Luke Littler says ‘no-one’s friends on stage’ as he fires warning to darts rival who is ‘nowhere near his best’
LUKE LITTLER is expecting another classic with Josh Rock as he underlined why he comes alive on the big stage.
The Nuke and the Northern Ireland thrower are good pals and share the same sponsors but on the oche they become “enemies”.
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Luke Littler has fired a warning towards darts rival Josh RockCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
Their meeting on Saturday night in the Grand Slam of Darts quarter-finals will be their third clash in the pro ranks.
The last encounter was a right old ding-dong at the World Matchplay in July as Littler rallied from losing the opening five legs to prevail 17-14 in the semi-finals in Blackpool.
Littler, 18, said: “Josh played nowhere near his best in his last game. An 89 average, that isn’t Josh.
“If he sees that, he’s going to kick himself. He’s going to be up for it.
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“Because I’m always up for a good game, especially Josh. Hopefully I can go into a 5-0 lead and not be 5-0 down like in the Matchplay.
“No-one’s friends on stage. You’re on your own up there. You’ve got to do your job.
“Backstage we’ll always chat, we’ll always have a laugh. But once we’re on stage then we’re enemies and we’ve got to do our job.
“The Development Tour and ProTours are different to this. Here, you’re on Sky Sports, the lights are all over you, but I love the stage.
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“Everyone knows I hate the ProTours because there’s no atmosphere. All you can hear at the ProTours are squeaky chairs, people chatting.
“I just love playing on a big stage and I love producing.”
The world No2 crushed Dutchman Wessel Nijman 10-4 on Thursday night – his 11th straight win in the Grand Slam – and he thought he would be back the next day for more action.
But the way the draw is, he is not expected to return to the oche until Saturday night time.
Littler prefers it when he plays day after day without a break as he is not a big fan of practising.
The day off also meant a dilemma about whether to stay in the Black County or go back home before facing a key weekend of darts.
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The Grand Slam defending champion, who recently passed his driving test, fumed: “What am I going to do? I have no idea. I was expecting to be playing again on Friday.
“Now the group’s just done, I just want to play and play, day after day.
“If I do get past Josh, then obviously the semis and final are on Sunday. But I’ll take a rest now.
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“I’ll watch the darts. Me, my mum and dad, we always watch it whenever I’m not playing.
“Obviously some players probably don’t watch the darts but we always watch it. There’s no point in not watching it because we want to know what’s going on.”
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