BUNTING TARGETS LITTLER WIN
30/04/2025 By Aaron Nijjar
By Aaron Nijjar
STEPHEN BUNTING will be hoping to keep the celebrations going this Thursday after his beloved Liverpool were crowned 2024/25 Premier League champions.
‘The Bullet’ is a lifelong Liverpool fan and he faces Man United supporter Luke Littler in the quarter-finals of Night 13 of the Premier League in Birmingham.
But former Masters champion Bunting says he’s holding off on any football banter with ‘The Nuke’ until after the match.
He laughingly said: “I don’t want to wind him up too much because I’ve got him in that first game!
“I’ll probably leave it until after the game, and hopefully I can get a result against him.”
World No. 4 Bunting has previously been accused of showing too much respect to league leader Littler on the oche.
However, the St Helens thrower once again praised the teenage world champion ahead of their clash.
He added: “He’s such a fantastic player, he’s brought a new breath of fresh air to darts.
“You can see it now with the demographic of the fans that are following our sport.
“He’s brought it right down, there’s young kids getting involved.
“I done a Bullseye Maths session the other day and the teacher at the start of the session asked how many people had picked up darts.
“This was a group between 8 and 9, everyone apart from one person had picked up darts.
“It just goes to show how far our sport has come in such a little time.”
Bunting ended an eight-match losing streak in the tournament at Berlin on Night Nine with his first nightly victory.
He reached the final in Rotterdam on Night 11 and delivered a standout 6-5 semi-final win over Littler with a 106 average.
The 40-year-old currently sits bottom of the table and his hopes off making the play-offs are fading as he sits nine points adrift off the top four.
Image by Taylor Lanning.
