LUKE LITTLER waved his arms at the crowd to keep them quiet after dumping home star Bruno ‘The Beast’ Stockli.
The 17-year-old came through a tough battle 6-3 against the construction worker in the Swiss Darts Trophy on Saturday night.
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‘The Nuke’, using new darts, had to ride the gauntlet of hate from the fans in Basel as they supported his 53-year-old rival.
It was close in the early stages at 3-3 but Littler kept his nerve in the noise to hit a wonderful 145 to take control of the tie.
Littler said: “Everyone knows my new darts only came out a few days ago.
“I tried them out and at one point I was debating whether to switch and go back to my old ones because of the crowd, they were obviously on his side.
“I just had to find my shots and the 145 really done it for me.
“The darts are all the same, it’s just the gold grooves on the barrel. I think it went well tonight.”
He now faces old foe Luke Humphries in the third round on Sunday in what is dubbed the new darts ‘El Clasico’.
He added: “We both love playing each other, as we’ve both said.
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“The rhythm and the pace of the game will make sure it’s a great game. Hopefully I can play a little bit better.”
Littler is chasing his third EuroTour title of 2024.
That’s despite pulling out of last weekend’s Hungarian Darts Trophy – won by Michael van Gerwen.
He then extended his break by missing the midweek Players Championship events in Leicester.
Littler has already triumphed at the Belgian and Austrian Darts Opens this year.
Earlier on Saturday evening, Humphries beat Richard Veenstra 6-2, James Wade KO’d pal Gerwyn Price 6-4 and Stephen Bunting took victory 6-5 over Michael Smith.
Inside Littler’s massive rise
LUKE LITTLER has taken the darts world by storm since exploding onto the scene at the PDC World Championship at the beginning of the year.
