Littler hit it straight away and shot out of the starting blocks with a perfect 105 finish in the first leg and an 81 finish in the second to break Nathan Aspinall immediately. 'The Nuke' threw at a tremendously high level and reached the third set with a whitewash after just 38 arrows and an average of no less than 118.66.
Aspinall opened the second set as he hoped and struck his first blow of the match with a leg win. However, questionable performances in the second and third legs, in which Aspinall was looking for a good position behind the oche a lot, especially in the third, gave Littler the upper hand again and put the young Englishman on the verge of claiming his second consecutive set.
The teenage sensation did exactly what was asked of him: it did not go in 38 arrows, but Littler won the set 3-1 from 65 and still submitted an average of no less than 111.29. Aspinall, meanwhile, remains stuck on 94.47 and needs to tap out of a different keg if he wants to keep any prospect of the semi-finals.
The statistics after two sets were, as always, unprecedented for Littler: in his first nine darts Littler throws 123.4 average, in his own leg 125 and with the first three darts Littler sits at no less than 133. By comparison, Aspinall sits at 95.8, 102.8 and 81.1 in those same statistics.
The men made it a party in the second leg of the third set by exchanging 180s. Once on 181, Aspinall again had two arrows in the triple 20, reason enough to peek out at the crowd with the thought of slamming in the next 180 - which made for a great moment for the crowd, viewers and players alike.
It ended up being Aspinall's set though: with two breaks, Aspinall managed to grab Littler's set and move to 2-1.
Final sprint
A questionable ending to the first leg of the fourth set gave Aspinall the lead in the set before another feast broke out: ten perfect darts gave both players a chance for a nine-darter, but again Aspinall struggled to get a grip on his darts and things went wrong for 'the Asp'. Littler eventually finished it off from 84 to make it 1-1.
Aspinall, the ample underdog at the betting shops, fought his way all the way back into the match and almost reached 2-2 in sets, but had to leave the fourth leg to Littler after a failed 83 finish. The set too eventually went to Littler after an almost effortless 82-finish.
Littler was in complete control of the match and despite a low finishing percentage waltzed over his opponent in the fifth set, which 'the Nuke' won 3-1 after finishes of 56, 101 and 81. In what may have been the very last set, Aspinall again started to find his balance on a finish but could not stop him from taking the lead.
Aspinall fought for all he was worth in the sixth set and even grabbed the set after finding his rhythm again with two 15-darters.
Littler no longer seemed to leave it to chance and soon put the match away: in a match in which Littler threw eight(!) twelve darters, Littler managed to finish it off with his first match dart. Luke Littler advances to the World Darts Championship semi-finals for the second year in a row, taking on Stephen 'The Bullet' Bunting tomorrow night.
