The 15th amateur to challenge Littler in Netflix stream on Friday evening, Sherrock was ‘lost for words’ after winning £501,000 prize

The name of the programme was Beat Luke Littler and Fallon Sherrock did just that.

On one of the biggest nights of the year for British TV and Netflix, there was much at stake: not just £501,000 to any of the 20 amateur challengers who managed to beat Littler in a single leg of darts, but also the jeopardy of whether audiences would choose to watch the streamer’s first UK live entertainment event – or the final of BBC juggernaut The Celebrity Traitors.

• Littler’s title defence ends in 2-1 first-round loss

• Michael van Gerwen also crashes out of last 32

Luke Littler suffered a 2-1 defeat to Luke Woodhouse on his return to the oche as the defence of his World Grand Prix title ended at the first hurdle.

The world No 1 was aiming to bounce back from his quarter-final exit to Jonny Clayton in the World Series of Darts in Amsterdam a week ago. Littler threatened to boycott tournaments in the Netherlands after being booed and whistled during the event, and missed the latest Players Championship events in Den Bosch.

• World No 1 jeered in Amsterdam defeat to Jonny Clayton

• Ross Smith beats Price to win World Series of Darts Finals

Luke Littler has threatened to boycott tournaments in the Netherlands after being booed and whistled during the World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam. Littler lost to Jonny Clayton in the quarter-finals, with Ross Smith going on to win the event.

The back-to-back world champion faced a hostile environment during his win against the home favourite Danny Noppert on Friday and it escalated on Saturday night as the referee had to intervene in the last-16 win against Nathan Aspinall.

The champions are capable of shattering every record in a temporary aligning of the planets, the elusiveness of pure perfection

Treble-20. “Ohh, he couldn’t.” Treble-19. “Oh, you spiteful young man.” Bull. “You spiteful person! That is ridiculous!” As ever, Wayne Mardle – commentating on the World Matchplay final for Sky Sports on Sunday night – put it most succinctly of all.

The great individual champions require a vindictive streak. The ability not just to harness their own strength, but to tessellate it with their opponent’s moment of greatest vulnerability. To sense weakness, recognise doubt and pounce mercilessly upon it. To nurture and desire the very same qualities we try to extinguish and discourage in our children. To find a 167 checkout, when your opponent is sitting on double-10, in a major final.

Double world champion is 14 titles from darts legend’s record but talented youngsters or even Littler himself could stall his quest

Luke Littler looked up and down the rows of filled seats, the line of microphones pointed at his mouth, the expectant faces hanging on his every word. This has long been one of his least favourite parts of the job, a fact he scarcely bothers to conceal. Occasionally everyone has to sit and wait while he sends a text. He leaves as soon as he is legitimately able. But there is of course a silver lining: if he’s sitting in the hot seat, it means he’s won.

“Youse are probably all bored of seeing me now,” he said. “But I’m going to be here for many more years.” And frankly, while the going is this good, why not? A second world title in a row, a 10th major trophy in just 21 attempts, the first ever £1m prize in the sport. Barry Hearn wants to get that up to £5m within the decade on a wave of Saudi investment. He’s 18 years old. Nobody in the sport is remotely as good as him. The boy is fresh and the boy is hungry and the boy is greedy.

A peak audience of 2.5m watched the world championship final on Sky as Luke Litter defended his title

If further proof was needed about the burgeoning popularity of Luke Littler and darts, it came with early viewing figures from Barb that showed the 18-year-old’s second world title victory on Saturday night was watched by a peak audience of 2.5m on Sky.

They are huge numbers in a sport that, not so long ago, would have been delighted with anything over a million. That is the Littler effect in action. But after thrashing the Dutch player Gian van Veen 7-1 in the final, he promised that his latest success – and the £1m first prize, a record for his sport – would not change him.

The teenager was expected to be tested by Gian van Veen but the only thing to ruffle him was the Ally Pally wasp

Few sports stars in history are so precocious that their place in the pantheon is assured by the time they are 18. Pelé was one. Nadia Comaneci another. Boris Becker too. Now you can add Luke Littler to that list.

Most experts had expected Gian van Veen to give Littler a proper test. He did. For three sets. Then this final became a rout. After his 7-1 dismantling, Van Veen was asked whether Littler was unstoppable. “It felt like it,” came the sad reply.

• Teenager beats Dutchman 7-1 in one-sided final

• Littler clicks into gear after losing opening set

The winning moment seemed to drain all the strength from his body. He leaned against the drinks table and let it take all his weight, clasped his face in his hands, cried a little. As if only just feeling the shape and hue of the unspeakable thing he had just done. As if some act of great violence had just left his hands. Perhaps it had.

And before the double world champion, before the social media phenomenon, before the commercial giant, before the global icon, there was Luke Littler the darts obsessive. A kid steeped and stewed in the heritage of the game, fully aware of the landmarks he is now chasing, the tapestry of greatness into which he is now indelibly woven.

Luke Littler produced an astounding display to regain his world title, winning 21 of the last 24 legs

I was just afraid of losing. Afraid of what people might think of me. What if I lose this game? What are my parents going to think of me? And that’s when it started. Dartitis, with me, was just being afraid to fail. And that was because I wasn’t confident in myself, not in darts, not in my personal life.

This piece, on Gian van Veen’s struggle with dartitis among other things, is well worth a read. As somebody who has had a form of writer’s block for almost a decade, I have immense admiration for Van Veen’s ability to overcome something even more debilitating.

• Van Veen wins classic against Gary Anderson 6-3

• World No 1 Littler swats aside Ryan Searle 6-1

It’s barely a couple of years since a 16-year-old Luke Littler and a 21-year-old Gian van Veen came through a 96-player field at Milton Keynes to qualify for the final of the world youth championship. There’s a charming photo of the pair of them with their arms around each other, silly little smiles plastered on to their silly little faces, the cutest high-street haircuts you’ve ever seen. Two kids at the very start of an unforgettable journey.

Did either of them foresee, in those sepia-tinted days of August 2023, that the journey would convey them this far, this fast? I reckon Littler did. There’s never been much room for doubt and scepticism in there. His whole world has been stepping up, throwing a dart and watching it go exactly where he wants it to. Four months later, he would go to Alexandra Palace and change the sport for ever.

• Updates from Alexandra Palace semis, from 7.30pm GMT

• Follow us on Bluesky | And get in touch: email Niall

First set: *Littler (0) 0-1 Searle (0) *denotes next to throw first Searle gets down to 56 and takes it out with Littler waiting on double top. “Ryan, Ryan, Searle” chant the crowd, to the perhaps overused tune of KC & the Sunshine Band’s “Give it Up.”

Ryan Searle to throw first, as the crowd remind the rest of us that “there’s only one Luke Littler …”

• Former world champion beaten 5-1 by rising star

• Littler cheered during rout of Krzysztof Ratajski

For the third time in this match, Gian van Veen is lining up the bull finish for a 170. This time, though, he steps away from the oche, and as the noise builds and swells around him, as the applause hardens into a tribal rhythm, he smiles. And in that moment, with millions of pairs of eyes on him, with glory within his grasp, he just knows. Knows that after all the years of hope and toil, of dreams and dismay, his moment is here at last.

That’s the thing about the future: you spend lifetimes waiting for it, peering into the glass, reading the tea leaves, and when it arrives it happens all at once. It was a little after half past nine on the first evening of the year, and already the throngs were streaming out of Alexandra Palace and back down the hill, convinced beyond any fraction of a doubt that they had just seen the next few years of darts take shape.

• Anderson v Hood to follow | You can drop Rob an email

• Littler v Ratajski, Humphries v Van Veen from 7pm GMT

*Searle (1) 2-0 (0) Clayton Another break of throw for Searle! Clayton missed a dart at D16, a terrible effort, and Searle took out 116 on tops with the air of a man strolling to the paper shop on a brisk winter morning. His finishing has been outrageous.

Searle (1) 1-0 (0) Clayton*

• PDC hot favourite was jeered during quarter-final victory

• ‘It definitely fuelled me up and it made me play better’

Luke Littler admits he lost his head when reacting to the hostile crowd during his fourth-round PDC World Darts Championship win over Rob Cross and still has some learning to do.

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. Littler let the emotion out after throwing the winning darts, running around the stage gesturing to the crowd, who had wanted Cross to win.

The Guardian sport photographer selects his favourite images he has taken this year and recalls the stories behind them

This is a selection of some of my favourite pictures taken at events I’ve covered this year, quite a few of which haven’t been published before. Several have been chosen for their news value, others purely for their aesthetic value, while some are here just because there’s a nice story behind them.

• World No 63 wins 4-3 to claim biggest victory of his career

• Luke Littler eases past Mensur Suljovic 4-0 in round three

By the end, the room had gone still and quiet. The air was warm and smelled faintly of spilled pints. The chants of “One Stephen Bunting” had long since died away, and all that was left was one Stephen Bunting: three darts in his hand and no more tricks up his sleeve. No place left to run.

And so as James Hurrell pinned tops to win 4-3 and claim the biggest victory of his life, there was just the merest whiff of anticlimax to it all: a seismic shock that also somehow felt like the most natural thing in the world. The crowds dispersed with barely a murmur. Hurrell packed up his darts and left the stage: not overawed or overcome, but bearing the immense calmness of a man who had seen this all coming in advance.

The golfer was rewarded for his Masters and Ryder Cup heroics with Ellie Kildunne in second and Lando Norris third

And here are recent Guardian interviews with that trio of elite athletes. Get reading!

Two more contenders for tonight’s big prize have arrived in Salford: Chloe Kelly and Rory McIlroy!

The PDC world darts championship is back, but could the new £1m winners’ cheque make this show too big?

A team of assistant referees walks into the Twelve Pins in Finsbury Park carrying linesmen’s flags and whistles. It’s 3pm on a Thursday, you think, they’ve probably just been reffing a local game. Then, you think, there isn’t a football pitch around here. And why haven’t they changed and showered? Then more referees walk in, more linesmen, one of them in a comedy wig. And eventually the penny drops.

Yes, “the Darts” is back: an indispensable festive trimming that – much like Christmas itself – always seems to roll around a little sooner every year. Fire up all the old cliches: “the beauty of set play”, “bent the wire”, “pressure the shot”. Wheel John Part out of the attic. Fingers poised on the 180 zoom. You know it’s serious, because it’s two hours before his match and Luke Littler is already on the practice board.

Defending champion is a phenomenon and the indisputable titan of the game with a sense of inevitability at the Alexandra Palace extravaganza

You will be seeing plenty of Batman and Wonder Woman over the coming weeks; Spiderman, Mr Incredible, perhaps even a Ninja Turtle or two. Yes, Christmas at Alexandra Palace is always a good time for spotting superheroes. But only one of them will not be wearing a costume.

In fact, it is when he is in his normal human clothes, doing normal human things, that Luke Littler looks at his most incongruous. Standing with his fellow Manchester United fans in the away end at Molineux. Proudly brandishing a fresh driving certificate after finally passing his test. And it is in these more unguarded moments that you remember that the man they call The Nuke, the phenomenon who has detonated the sport of darts, is really still just a kid, a regular lad from Warrington with a deeply irregular talent.