Luke Littler's World Cup of Darts emotion defended: He cannot win either way
Sky Sports Darts' Abigail Davies believes Luke Littler is being judged too harshly for showing emotion during England's World Cup of Darts loss to Germany; you can watch the Betfred World Matchplay live on Sky Sports from July 19-27 at the iconic Winter Gardens
Wednesday 18 June 2025 14:59, UK
Sky Sports Darts' Abigail Davies believes Luke Littler "cannot win" after he was criticised following his reaction to losing at the World Cup of Darts.
World No 1 Luke Humphries and world No 2 Littler entered the World Cup as England's dream pairing for the competition, the main question beforehand being 'how would the other teams stop them?'.
However, against all the odds, they slipped to an 8-4 second-round defeat at the Eissporthalle in Frankfurt as Germany's Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko, spurred on by a partisan home crowd, sealed a comprehensive victory.
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Littler was clearly emotional throughout the contest - the world champion has struggled in front of German crowds in the past - and he quickly exited the stage once the loss was confirmed, while Humphries stayed around a bit longer to congratulate the winning pair.
For Sky Sports Darts' Abi Davies, Littler is damned either way with how he reacts to such a shock defeat.
Speaking on the Sky Sports' Love the Darts podcast, Davies said: "Luke Littler is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.
"He storms off stage, had he stayed on stage it would have been 'he doesn't care enough, he is doing this, he is doing that'.
"He storms off and it is 'he cares too much'. He just cannot win.
"Also, he is 18 years of age and we just hold him to such high standards and on such a pedestal with things like this.
"Of course he is going to show these bursts of emotion, of course he is - like everybody throughout their career does.
"Yes, Luke Humphries showed immense class by staying on stage. He reacted as someone would if they are 12 years older because that is what Humphries is.
"I think sometimes we are quick to go 'oh he is 18, look at everything he is doing as an 18-year-old' and then when he behaves like an 18-year-old he is not allowed to do that.
"You are allowed to behave like an 18-year-old for all the good reasons we mention, but anything bad we mention 'oh no we can't have that'.
"He is a child."
Edgar: Ronaldo and Messi together wouldn't work!
For Matt Edgar, the shock loss for England only adds to the excitement for future World Cups as he believes Littler and Humphries will look to prove the doubters wrong.
Now they will be focused on showing they are not the 'Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard' midfield combination that did not work for England's football team, and will want to prove they can be a winning pair on the world stage.
"I think he [Littler] will do the World Cup because if he plays it 52 times he will probably win it 50 and he will want to go prove that," Edgar said.
"There are some things that have happened off the back of that and we have asked questions now.
"Beforehand, we were looking for reasons to not pick England, now we have got a reason, and it needs to be answered.
"I have seen all of those memes like the Gerrard and Lampard one. But how true.Ttwo of the greatest midfielders we have had could not work together.
"Then it makes you think about other things like if you put Ronaldo and Messi up front together, does that work? Probably not.
"Does this work as a partnership? I think it does but with there being a question mark there I think it makes the World Cup next year so exciting."
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