LUKE LITTLER will get a clean slate at Thursday’s Premier League meeting after a bust-up with darts rival Gian van Veen last week.
The Nuke, 19, was involved in a with Van Veen, 23, in Manchester after both players missed match darts.
Luke Littler had a spat with Gian van Veen in the Premier League last weekCredit: X/OfficialPDC
Huw Ware called the match, which finished on a tense noteCredit: Alamy
Van Veen went on to win the clash – a rematch of the 2026 final – but things got feisty, not that referee Huw Ware had realised.
PDC favourite Ware, 32, exclusively told SunSport: “From my perspective, I didn’t really know what had happened until I got off the stage.
“I was looking at the dart board. The first thing I saw was after Gian took his darts out and Luke was geeing up the crowd and I thought, ‘Oh, he’s geeing up the crowd, there we are.’
“I hadn’t realised what had gone on between them. I couldn’t see that anyway.
“It wasn’t anything for me to get involved with, no. Not really.
“Everything was fine. They were both very professional in the sense that they both shook hands.”
Welshman Ware, the first openly gay ref in the sport, speaking as a Global Ambassador of Winmau, doesn’t expect things to carry over to Night 10 in Brighton.
He said: “In my experience, whenever two players have a bit of needle between them, no matter how bad it is, the next game that they play with each other, the next game is absolutely fine.
“They didn’t stop to have a row with one another or things like this, in which case I might have had to get involved between them if it came to that.
“It’s a clean slate. As a referee you’re impartial. I can’t take sides as far as who is the right and who is in the wrong.
“If I refereed for them this week and something happened then I personally would be treating it as a clean slate.
“I don’t have any kind of preconceived notions or agendas against anybody when I’m up there.”
and could meet in the semis if they beat Stephen Bunting and , respectively.
And British sensation Littler keeps Ware on his toes as an official.
He said: “Luke used to throw me every game when he first came along. He can still do now.
“He loves doing double 15, so going for treble 18 on 84 with one dart left is quite uncommon.
“Now I’m ready for it, I think I’m better now in that respect.
Littler played up to the crowd at the very end of the contestCredit: X/OfficialPDC
Van Veen was not impressed by Littler’s behaviourCredit: Not known, clear with picture desk
“But sometimes people do just throw you, even if you understand you can be thrown.”
And that is far from the extent of Littler’s impact.
For Ware, who was ref for half of Littler’s second World Championship final in 2025 against Van Gerwen, the Nuke is already inspiring the next generation.
He said: “Luke Littler came along and the sport changed and it’s continuing to change.
“I’ve been to academy visits over the last month or so and I cannot believe the amount of kids that are there.
“I wish that was there when I was a kid, I really do.
“And it’s just amazing to see how it’s gone. It’s done a complete 180 compared to when I was in school.
“I wasn’t strange for loving darts, but it was just a bit niche.
“No one else understood it. I had nobody else in the school to relate to as far as that’s concerned.
“Now I feel like it’s fashionable. Everyone loves darts.
Ware is one of the PDC’s go-to refereesCredit: Getty
SCHEDULE AND RESULTS
“I went to a primary school up the valleys a few weeks ago with Bullseye Maths, which again is a great initiative to help get kids involved in darts and doing maths.
“And the whole primary school was in there for the assembly before we did the lesson.
“The first mention of Luke Littler, everyone went ‘Oh’, like that, and it was amazing.
“Well, if I was in school, then the best player in the world was Phil Taylor.
“No one was going, ‘Oh!’ like that, apart from me, maybe. So, it’s just amazing to see how much that’s changed.
“And the global impact and the partnership opportunities that have exploded all because of Luke Littler coming along, this 16-year-old at the time, showing all these kids that they can conquer the world, no matter what age they are.
“That’s why all these kids look up to him.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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