Luke Littler seen doing gesture in response to booing Dutch fans during Premier League match

Luke Littler appeared to call for calm from the Dutch Premier League fans during his win against Luke Humphries in Rotterdam.

‘The Nuke’ was up against the reigning champion in the semi-finals of night 11 having already beaten Gerwyn Price.

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When taking to the stage in, Littler was given an awkward reception from the Dutch crowd.

Boos and jeers against Littler could be heard throughout the night, especially when he was up at the oche in what seemed to be in response to a recent fallout with Gian van Veen.

Littler appeared to call for the Dutchman to hurry up during a turn when they met in Manchester earlier in the month.

There was also a frosty post-match handshake between the two, and even a supposedly sarcastic ‘well done’ towards Van Veen from Littler.

Furthermore, Littler made a crying gesture to his opponent and Van Veen’s compatriots offered their backing for Van Veen with a series of disruptive noises when Littler was up against Humphries.

Littler responds to fans

At one point, he turned towards a section of the crowd and waved his hand as if to tell them to calm down.

Littler went on to win 6-5 and reach the final although he was unable to overcome Jonny Clayton, who took night 11 with a 6-4 victory.

Taking to Instagram afterwards, Littler acknowledged the crowd and their attempts to put him off.

He said: “To play in them circumstances I’ll take three more points on the board.”

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Littler at the Premier League so far

A month after beating Van Veen to become a back-to-back world champion, Littler entered his third Premier League tournament.

He had to wait until night five in Cardiff to pick up his first victory following two quarter-final exits and two semi-final defeats.

Nights seven and eight were also successes for Littler, who missed out on a hat-trick due to the feisty loss to Van Veen in Manchester.

After travelling to Liverpool next week, Aberdeen, Leeds, Birmingham and Sheffield will be the final stops before the play-offs.

Littler is on course to reach the final four for a third consecutive year as he sits second behind Clayton in the standings.

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