Littler the man to beat at Ally Pally

Sport and Christmas is one of the great combinations. It’s a time of year when most of us actually have the time to sit down and watch sport all day long, without being judged for doing so. It’s hard to beat.

The Premier League provides a plethora of football at this time of year, often with staggered kick-off times, to give us matches nearly all around the clock during most days of the festive season. Rugby, too, has its place, particularly with the inter-pro derbies and for racing aficionados, a day out at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival is always one to tick off the sporting bucket list.

For many, though, Christmas means one thing: Darts.

The sport’s popularity has increased significantly over the years after the legal wrangles of the 1990s but it is now enjoying a massive boom on the back of last year’s PDC World Championship which featured the remarkable rise of 16-year-old Luke Littler, who went all the way to the final before succumbing to Luke Humphries.

A peak audience of 3.71 million people tuned into the final last year, representing the largest ever audience Sky Sports has recorded for a non-football event. It was a 143pc increase on the 2022 final.

It wasn’t always thus, however. Darts has enjoyed an unusual relationship with the public, owing largely to its image amongst wider society.

Indeed, during the heady days of coverage on terrestrial television in the UK when over 8 million people watched Keith Deller beat Eric Bristow in the 1983 final, it seemed as though the only way was up. Between the BBC and ITV, 23 tournaments a year were broadcast.

The late commentator Sid Waddell - after whom the PDC World Championship trophy is now named - said this about the culture in darts during its early glory years.

“It was a magnificent subculture’, he told Sky in 2011.

“Big guys with tattoos, who liked a pint and a bet. Leighton Rees from the Valleys, who lived with his mam; Alan Evans, whose dad had a pub and used to stand him on a box to play at the age of eight.

“Later, there was Keith Deller, whose mum used to fry chips with one hand and throw darts with the other; and Jocky Wilson, who would bring his own optic to tournaments and a bottle of vodka with his name on it. He’d win darts matches when other people would have been in intensive care.” The image of darts, however, changed immeasurably in a short period of time. The culture of heavy drinking and smoking during matches was the subject of a skit aired on ‘Not the Nine O’Clock News’ in the 1980s, which mocked two darts players smoking and drinking heavily on stage.

It was not entirely inaccurate - that was part of the sport’s image - but that sketch is understood to have given TV stations a bit of a scare as society changed. So too did darts’ position in the sporting landscape.

Secondly, the players grew tired of the leadership of the British Darts Organisation, known as the BDO. It all came to a head in 1994 when the top 16 players - including Bristow, John Lowe and Phil Taylor - broke away to form the WDC.

Today, the organisation is known as the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and has prize money of over 10 million a year for its events, while the BDO no longer exists.

Darts has rehabilitated its image through a number of initiatives. Central to it has been building a product that is audience-friendly. Players have sometimes expressed their frustration at their own Christmas being upset by the World Championship being held at this time of the year - James Wade was the latest to speak about this just last week - but because they take this part of the calendar, darts is guaranteed eyeballs.

People are in pubs more regularly, there is more free time, and darts is easy to watch and understand. It’s a winning combination.

Moreover, if you actually go to attend an event, it's a good experience. The crowds get involved and there is a bit of craic. Tickets for the Premier League dates earlier this year were like gold dust.

The sport has also been helped by the emergence of major storylines, such as Luke Littler’s rise. At 17 years old, he has attracted a huge new cohort of people to the sport that wouldn’t otherwise be interested. His coach told the BBC earlier this year that there is now a waiting list of youngsters looking to take up the sport in Staffordshire off the back of Littler’s success.

This year's tournament - which got underway on Sunday and will run until the conclusion of the final on January 3rd - will be dominated by how Littler progresses. Organisers must be impartial, of course, but you can be sure they'll be hoping he stays in their for as long as possible to attract as many eyeballs as possible over the coming weeks.

Luke Humphries, last year's champion, will again harbour hopes of going all the way. He has spoken openly and eloquently about his own struggled with anxiety and nervousness, which makes his triumphs in darts all the more impressive. When on top of his game, few come close to him right now.

The more established names in the sport, such as Gary Anderson or Michael van Gerwen, will be there or thereabouts though, in the case of van Gerwen, his form has been puzzling in recent seasons.

The departure of Phil Taylor from the world stage seemed to open things up for van Gerwen, who looked destined to take over as the dominant player in the sport when he won his third World Championship in 2019 at the age of 30.

Yet, since then, he has been soundly beaten in the two finals he has contested (2020 and 2023) and has slipped down to third in the world rankings.

Littler, at 17, is the man to beat. And that's why so many people will be tuning in to watch.