NATHAN ASPINALL has revealed his surprise at the tough love handed to Luke Littler from dad Anthony – when The Nuke was just 12.
The Asp first faced world champion Littler over five years ago at a tournament in Chester.
Aspinall was ranked in the world’s Top 20 and The Nuke was barely in high school when they battled it out at the oche.
The Asp said: “The first time I came across Luke, I think it was in Chester in a tournament and I beat him 4-3.
“I think he was aged four! No, he was around 12 and wow, I just thought ‘Who is this kid?’.”
Despite pre-teen Littler almost beating one of the world’s best, Aspinall was surprised to see dad Anthony Buckley unimpressed with his son’s performance.
He continued: “I remember seeing his dad with him and he was dead critical of him because he’d lost.
“I was thinking mate, he’s 12, and I was in the top 16 in the world at that time. I said ‘Give him a break’.
“His dad said: ‘No, he needs to learn’.
“That hard talk over the years has probably produced one of the best players in our sport.
“He’s amazing and what else can you say?”
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Stunned Luke Littler makes history by winning World Darts Championship aged just 17″ embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6366667979112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]Littler stunned the world of darts by reaching the PDC World Championship final last January.
The teenager went one step further last week, beating Michael van Gerwen 7-3 to become the youngest ever world champion.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D101717%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]Littler took on Aspinall during his fairytale run to the final, thrashing him 6-1 in the semi-finals.
Prior to their final four contest on New Year’s Day, Aspinall claimed he felt like a “big brother” to darts’ newest sensation.
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He said: “I see myself as maybe an older brother [to Luke] in the darts world.
“He’s a nice kid. He hasn’t got many mates on the tour because a lot of people are jealous of him – I am not.
“I appreciate what he has done for the game, what he has done for himself and his family. I think he’s a fantastic darts player.
“And the way he has handled himself at 17 with the media – I don’t think many full-grown adults could do what he has done.
“I tip my hat to the guy.”
Littler returns to action later this month at the Bahrain Darts Masters.
But the newly-crowned champ is in no rush to pick up a set of darts after a mentally draining three weeks at Ally Pally.
Litler admitted: “I don’t want to practice really. l just want to chill out.
“It’ll probably be the same as last year, leading up to the Bahrain Masters I won’t pick them up.”