WRIGHT: LUKE HAS GIVEN US A KICK!

PETER WRIGHT says that Luke Littler’s success has given the top stars a kick up the backside. 

The Scot became the latest world champion to get KO’d by the teen sensation in Newcastle last week. 

Wright, 53, is now bottom of the Premier League but believes that the 17-year-old has sparked the big boys into working harder. 

‘Snakebite’ plays Nathan Aspinall in Exeter tonight (Thursday) and admitted: “I think it’s making us all get our fingers out and start practising harder because he’d producing some good figures on TV. 

“I’m not in his shoes or in his body. If I was in his shoes and at his age, I thrived playing all the big players no matter who they were. 

“I wanted to play them and try and beat them. But he’s up there doing it on TV. I was trying to just do that in exhibitions or in clubs. 

“He’s performing and doing some fantastic stuff. It’s great for darts and the potential sponsors coming in. For all the young girls and boys, he’s inspiring them. 

“I think he will get tired and there will be a dip in form but then he’ll be back again because he’s young.”

Wright has zero points after four weeks but is not pressing any panic buttons just yet. He is also focused on the UK Open which starts in Minehead on Friday.

He added: “I’ve got ages to go yet. My eyes are on the UK Open. Nathan is playing some magic darts but not quite finishing games off. It should be a really good game.

“I’m playing a lot better than I have been so that’s a positive going forward. 

“If you look at Luke Littler’s results in the Premier League, he always plays really well. I knew how to suffocate him but I blew it with the wrong choice going for 62, instead of going for double top I went double 16 and he punished me. 

“It was the first time I had played him and I enjoyed it. 

“He threw some big 180s and I answered him back. I was life my old self. That’s what I wanted to do. 

“I used my old, old darts that used to do the damage. I watched my old game with Adrian Lewis in Exeter when I averaged 119 and he was on 109. 

“The week before I that I played Michael van Gerwen in an exhibition and had a 133 average and then won the UK Open. 

“So I was like ‘Wrighty what are you doing?’ So I found these darts and rubbed the rust off of them!

“I got to the semi-finals and quarter-finals of the Players Championships. It was hard work, none of the darts went where I wanted them to go. Onwards and upwards.” 

Images by Taylor Lanning.