Luke Littler was met with jeers from the Brighton crowd as he suffered a 6-4 defeat to birthday boy Stephen Bunting in the Premier League night 10 quarter-finals. The world champion, appearing rattled by a hostile atmosphere, was subjected to ironic cheers following a poor start from which he could not recover.
Bunting, who turned 41 on Thursday, could have wrapped up the win earlier but hit only six of his 21 darts at a double. Littler, who averaged just 83.94 and failed to hit a single maximum, showed little reaction to the surprise defeat, shaking Bunting's hand and exiting the stage meekly. His average was the lowest in a televised PDC match for the 19-year-old.
Bunting told Sky Sports: “It was tough, to be honest, because obviously the crowd was giving him some stick. I like Luke, he’s a fantastic lad and I don’t like to see that. It probably made me more nervous, to be honest. It put me on edge. The way he was playing, I was expecting him to burst into this barrage and it just didn’t happen for him.”
Bunting progressed to face Michael van Gerwen in the semi-finals, who defeated him 6-5 after van Gerwen had earlier beaten Gian van Veen 6-4. In the other quarter-finals, Jonny Clayton hit a bullseye to win a last-leg decider against defending champion Luke Humphries, while Gerwyn Price lost 6-3 to Josh Rock. Clayton then defeated Rock 6-4 and came from 5-2 down to beat van Gerwen in the final, moving back to the top of the Premier League table.
Clayton said: “I thought the game was over at 5-2 up for Michael. He missed, he gave me a chance. You've got to take chances. That last leg was probably my best of the game. I'm back on top of the table, Luke Littler can start chasing me again.”
