{"id":258090,"date":"2025-12-30T13:35:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T13:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/258090\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T13:35:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T13:35:15","slug":"luke-littler-admits-he-lost-his-head-amid-hostile-crowd-reaction-at-ally-pally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/258090\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Littler admits he lost his head amid hostile crowd reaction at Ally Pally"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Luke Littler admits he \u201clost\u201d his head when reacting to the hostile crowd during his fourth-round World Championship win over Rob Cross and still has some learning to do.<\/p>\n<p>The 18-year-old was booed and jeered as he beat Cross 4-2 to book his place in the quarter-finals at Alexandra Palace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Littler let the emotion out after throwing the winning darts, running around the stage gesturing to the crowd, who had wanted Cross to win.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2.82913733.jpg\" title=\"Paddy Power World Darts Championship \u2013 Day Sixteen \u2013 Alexandra Palace\" \/> Littler hit back at the fans during an on-stage interview (John Walton\/PA)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He then doubled down during his on-stage interview, saying: \u201cYou guys pay for tickets and you pay for my prize money, so thank you for my money, thank you for booing me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It was an unusual experience for Littler, who has been the darling of the sport since his emergence two years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI think I lost (my head), it\u2019s still on there,\u201d the defending champion said. \u201cTwo years ago I think I would have started throwing my darts left-handed, but that is how much I have grown, how much I have matured.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cPeople might say I have not matured, but try and be in my position.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Luke Littler&#8217;s response to those in Ally Pally booing him \ud83d\udc40 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QHszE1z4ua\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/QHszE1z4ua<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sky Sports Darts (@SkySportsDarts) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SkySportsDarts\/status\/2005773414347247772?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI can still learn a lot. I can learn how to deal with the crowd, not let as much emotion out, just keep it all in me until that final dart.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThat\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve been at the World Championships and the crowd have not wanted me to win. I will expect the worst on New Year\u2019s Day and whatever happens will happen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThe fans did what they did, I reacted like any other player would, I think I might have reacted a bit too early on after the first set and when I came on for the second set I said to myself, \u2018Yeah, you\u2019ve reacted too early here\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/65ce8ce3-84a6-416a-9399-c380819b62f9.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI just had to get on with the job. It wasn\u2019t really at the front of the mind because they want the underdog to win or they want the game to go on even longer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Littler\u2019s reaction may have set the alarm bells ringing in the rest of the field as he averaged 106.5 and threw 17 180s in a champion-like performance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt definitely fuelled me up and it made me play better,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI am only a few games away from lifting the trophy once again but the performance really doesn\u2019t feel like a 106.5, because there was that much adrenaline going through me, that much emotion, the anger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI am glad I won.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Littler returns to the stage on Thursday, when he will face Luke Woodhouse or Krzysztof Ratajski.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke Littler admits he \u201clost\u201d his head when reacting to the hostile crowd during his fourth-round World Championship&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,2104,7,8,65],"class_list":{"0":"post-258090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-place-uk","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115808785578477987","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}