Dublin is the latest stop on the Luke Littler tour as the World Championship finalist bids to win a first Premier League event at the 3Arena tonight.
Such has been the hype surrounding the 17-year-old since his run to the Alexandra Palace decider aged 16, one may be forgiven for thinking that he actually won the Sid Waddell Trophy last January.
While he fell short in that match against Luke Humphries, ranked number one in the world, Littler has since gone on to win the Bahrain Darts Masters, a ProTour floor title, the Belgian Darts Open and hit three nine-dart finishes along the way.
What's missing from his list now is a Premier League night to call his own.
The Warrington teenager has reached the final once, on night two when he lost to Michael van Gerwen, and been to the semi-finals five times more.
There’ll be no panic, however, with his consistency across the eight nights so far getting him up to third in the table, with the top four qualifying for the play-offs in May after 16 regular-season rounds.
Littler, who averaged 114 in last week’s 6-2 victory over Van Gerwen and missed double 12 for a nine-darter, will take on 2023 world champion Michael Smith in the fourth of the night’s quarter-finals.
It won’t be Littler’s first time to throw in Ireland, however. His first senior title was the Irish Open in 2021. He was 14 years old.
LITTLER HITS A NINE-DARTER! ☢️🔥
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) March 10, 2024
LUKE LITTLER HAS STRUCK PERFECTION IN THE FINAL!
It's yet more history from The Nuke as he pins a perfect leg in the final of his Euro Tour debut!
Starboy.
Watch the final 👉 https://t.co/YyBPPwoMK8 pic.twitter.com/e6XLwUuuEZ
The young man is big news: when he wins a tournament, he gets the headlines, when he decides to miss a tournament due to scheduling decisions, it makes the news too.
And the rising tide lifts all boats and there has been a massive increase in the sport’s popularity since Littler went mainstream.
The World Championship final on Sky Sports had the highest ever rating for darts, with a record audience for a non-Premier League football match of 4.8million people tuning in to the channel.
On the ground there has been a massive increase in participation. The Winmau Development Tour has seen a jump in entries from 260-plus in 2023 to over 360 this year.
Junior Darts Corporation academies are reporting a 30% increase in registrations, according to PDC figures supplied to RTÉ Sport.
The shops can’t keep up with reports that the Blade 6 dart boards, the ones used in PDC events, are "almost out of stock".
One parent, John Doyle, picking up his sons Seanie and Dan from the Edenderry Darts Youth Academy, said he "went out to buy diesel and came back with a dart board and a set of darts".
RTÉ’s Gail Conway visited the Co Offaly academy recently to see the phenomenon firsthand (above) and it’s been replicated all over the country.
Back at the top end, table-topper Humphries says he can’t wait to play in Ireland and the Berkshire native last week spoke about his Irish roots.
"My grandad was Irish, fully Irish, he was born in Ireland, my mum's half-Irish so it's a special place for me," said the 29-year-old.
"I haven't played in Dublin before on the stage. I qualified for the Grand Prix the year after it left.
"It's going to be very special, especially for my mum to watch me play in the country where her dad was born.
"It's a very special place for me and I've heard it's one of the best crowds so I'm really looking forward to it...and hoping I can get the hat-trick and win it.
"It's not my home country but for my family's sake it's their second country."
Humphries, who won the last two nights, opens up proceedings against bottom-of-the-table Peter Wright.
Nathan Aspinall takes on Rob Cross, while Van Gerwen faces Gerwyn Price.
Littler's debut in the Premier League drew a record TV audience since the Premier League began in 2005 and PDC chief executive Matt Porter told RTÉ Sport that Dublin, a 9,000 sell-out this evening, is a venue that the players love.
"Whether it's once or three times [that Luke Littler walks on] it's going to be an unbelievable atmosphere. The closest type of cavern venue we have is the Hydro in Glasgow where he played a few weeks ago so he'll be [used to it]".
Meanwhile, Porter also revealed that he had recently been in Ireland discussing the possibility of the Grand Prix event returning to these shores.
The double-in major was held in Dublin between 2000 and 2019 but has not returned since the Citywest venue became unavailable during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said that the PDC was actively working on getting a "multi-day event" back in Ireland.
Order of play, from 7pm
Quarter-finals
Luke Humphries v Peter Wright
Nathan Aspinall v Rob Cross
Michael van Gerwen v Gerwyn Price
Luke Littler v Michael Smith
Semi-finals
Humphries/Wright v Aspinall/Cross
Van Gerwen/Price v Littler/Smith
Final
Humphries/Wright/Aspinall/Cross v Van Gerwen/Price/Littler/Smith
