Luke Littler was once again denied by his nemesis Gerwyn Price, with the ‘Iceman’ claiming victory in the Premier League in Nottingham.
The Welshman was sensational on Thursday night as he dispatched Littler 6-3 having earlier thrashed Michael van Gerwen 6-1 and getting past Stephen Bunting.
Littler and Luke Humphries met in a mouth-watering quarter-final clash on Premier League night six at the quarter final stage.
‘The Nuke’ eliminated the world No.1 with a sensational display to go level on 15 points at the top of the overall Premier League standings.
It was yet another battle of tungsten brilliance, but Littler got the edge this time out to close out a 6-4 win.
He continued his scintillating displays in Nottingham with a simply stunning 6-3 win over Rob Cross.
In that match, Littler pinned two 164 finishes and averaged 108 with Cross playing some vintage stuff but simply no match for the teenage prodigy.
He took on Welsh wizard Gerwyn Price in the final, who too had been in fine fettle, taking apart Michael Van Gerwen 6-1 in his semi-final.
Price had the number of the sport’s talisman right now, having beaten him on five consecutive occasions including in Dublin on night three.
He raced into a 3-0 lead and things looked ominous but Littler managed to save his skin in the match, staying in at 4-2.
But it was Price who got the job done, flying out to an incredible 6-3 victory and denying Littler again.
It was his sixth straight victory over Littler, but ‘The Nuke’ secured his place at the top of the league despite the defeat.
PDCLittler had beaten Humphries earlier in the night and now leads the standings[/caption]
He leapfrogged Humphries at the top of the standings and is in pole position to make the play-offs.
Incredibly, Price averaged far less than Littler in the match posting 94, in comparison to the Englishman’s far superior average of 103.9.
But Price pinned 55 per cent of his doubles and was in much better fettle on the outer ring than Littler who missed 10 of his 13 double chances.
After extending his frightening run against Littler, Price was full of praise for the 18-year-old who continues to be the man to beat.
He said: “I mean the first game is always tough. You are scraping to get two points.
“Once I’d done that, I sort of relaxed a little bit. I did against Michael, but I wanted to get another win over Luke just to keep on top of him.
“He’s the best player in the world at the minute and he’s going to be for some years.
“I’ve sit on a table with James Wade and others and I praise him every single day, but I said that I think he will beat Phil Taylor’s record at 16 world titles.
“There’s nobody at the PDC at the minute that will stop him Only the younger generation, JDC, people that are going to stop him. We can’t stop him, he will only get better and better.
“It’s the same as playing Michael van Gerwen, Gary Andersons, you know you need to play well to beat those players.
“Honestly, it’s fantastic. I can’t praise him enough. He’s done wonders for this sport, for everybody, for myself.
“We all have to start winning now because in the next couple of years, he’s going to be unbeatable.”
At the other end of the table there’s more misery for Stephen Bunting, who’s searching for his first Premier League win of the season – the Liverpudlian losing 6-4 to Price in the quarter-finals.
