Luke Littler hits back at jeering fans with animated gesture – and later makes cheeky joke at Nottingham crowd

Luke Littler was targeted by jeers and whistles in Nottingham on Thursday night.

The world No.1 was on the receiving end of the jibes during night six of the Premier League which saw him lose in the semi-finals.

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Littler hit back at the crowd after being jeered during his quarter-final against Gerwyn Price at the Nottingham Arena.

With Price leading 4-3, both players missed chances to win the leg and level the match.

However, it was after Littler had come inside on double 20 that the noise from the fans intensified.

The Nuke was able to wrap up the leg on his trusty double 10 with his next dart, though.

This prompted an explosive reaction from the back-to-back world champion as he made his feelings clear to the crowd.

Littler threw his arms in the air as he turned to the audience whilst appearing to shout ‘come on!’

His visibly angry response was enough to fire the 19-year-old up to claim a crucial victory over Price.

The teenager went on to win the match 6-5 and advance to the semi-finals.

Littler later teased the Nottingham Forest fans in attendance during his pre-match walkout ahead of the last four.

He made ‘1-0’ and thumbs down gestures with his hands in reference to Forest’s Europa League defeat to Midtylland on the same night.

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Littler on crowd jeers

Littler then commented on the crowd after the match, explaining: “I showed there I can give it back to the fans. Go win games and forget about it.

“At one point I thought it was going to ruin an incredible game but I am just glad I got the job done.”

His run in Nottingham would end in his next match, though, as Littler was beaten 6-5 by Luke Humphries.

It denied the 2024 champion consecutive nightly wins after his first victory of the year in Cardiff last week.

Littler followed that win up by successfully defending his UK Open title in Minehead last weekend.

As he is not competing in the European Darts Trophy, Littler will return to the oche for night seven of the Premier League in Dublin.

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Littler’s weakness?

The crowd altercation in Nottingham came just days after darts presenter Phil Barr claimed he had spotted ‘a chink in the armour’.

Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT Darts, Barr revealed having the crowd turn on Littler could be key to beating him.

Asked about his struggles to pick up points in the opening weeks of the Premier League, the content creator said: “Will he pick up points…yes, he knows he can’t win the Premier League [title] this early anyways.

“There is a slight chink in the armour in my opinion and I’m not saying that there should be, but there is when he’s finding it difficult to deal with hostile crowds.

“We forget how young he is and he’s not used to this so he is learning on the job.

“People say the crowd shouldn’t do that and I agree that they shouldn’t be whistling and so on.

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“But in my opinion we’re never gonna change that so the players have to learn how to deal with it.

“They were on his back in Belfast and you could see he had the raging hump with it.

“It’s happened in Germany on the European tour and the World Cup, these are things that he has to adapt to.

“There’s currently a one per cent chance that if you can turn the crowd against him, perhaps you could get at him.”