Referee Charlie Corstophine was forced to temporarily halt play during Saturday evening's World Series of Darts Finals second-round clash between Luke Littler and Nathan Aspinall in Amsterdam after repeated whistling from the crowd whenever Littler was at the oche. The official turned to the stands and delivered a stern message: "Ladies and gentlemen, please, out of respect to both of the players, please do not whistle whilst they are throwing. Thank you."
It was not the first time this weekend that the 19-year-old Englishman had to deal with crowd disruption. Littler was also booed during his earlier match against Danny Noppert, responding on Friday by cupping his ears after a key moment to goad the Dutch crowd. A day later, in the tie with Aspinall, several whistles sounded while Littler was throwing.
Despite the distractions, Littler stayed composed and dug deep against Aspinall, prevailing after nineteen legs. In the decider he closed out a 10-9 victory, sealing his place in the quarter-finals. Afterwards, Littler said he had planned beforehand to block out as much as possible around the board. "I said I was just going to get my head down, focus on it, because we know what Nathan is like, he'll push me all the way and that's what he's done there yet again," said Littler.
Littler admitted he was not satisfied with his level throughout, feeling confidence was missing especially in the first two passages of play. "I only played well in the last session [from 6-6 onwards]. In the first two sessions, I didn't feel confident but I managed to get it to 6-6 and I was very good in the third," the Englishman admitted. The PDC highlighted the finish: "LITTLER SURVIVES LAST-LEG DECIDER! Luke Littler is taken all the way against Nathan Aspinall, but the World Champion delivers a cool 12-darter to squeeze into the last eight!"
