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If there can ever be a calm before the storm in the midst of a noisy, alcoholic cauldron World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palacemaybe that was it.
While the semi-final night can often be the highlight of the entire tournament, the 2025 edition crackled at times, but it never truly turned into an evening of darts classics that will live long in the memory. But the reward comes in what he set up.
The storm there will be a final on Friday night. Finally, since then Luke Littler was put in same half draw like current champion Luke Humphries meaning the showpiece could never be a repeat of 12 months agowhat both fans and organizers were hoping for.
The teenage darts phenom Littler was getting younger Michael van Gerwen.
Van Gerwen has the firepower to live with Littler and the name power to attract casual fans, if the 17-year-old needs any help drumming up interest in his remarkable quest for a maiden title. Their head-to-head record over the past 12 months is six wins – whoever wins the seventh time will be crowned world champions.
Both went into Thursday night’s semifinals as heavy favorites and ultimately delivered what was needed. It wasn’t always spectacular, but each outworked his opponent, placing a marker in front of his heavyweight competition.
Van Gerwen dismissed the fight Chris Dobey – who wilted somewhat in his first WDC semi-final – a 6-1 win at an average of 98.84 proved more than enough. Littler followed that up with a win over the fan favorite, extremely likable Stephen Buntingand he was certainly pushed harder than his Dutch foe, but still triumphed by the same score of 6-1, as he averaged 105.48.
The narrative threads that can be pulled before the finale are countless. Perhaps the manner in which Littler burst onto the darts scene and the intensity of the accompanying spotlight are unique in sports history. But if anyone can relate, it’s probably MvG.
In the late 2000s and early 2010s, he was a shooter wunderkind powered for size. Although he ended up taking slightly longer to reach the highest level than Littler, it is worth noting that there are many “youngest” records set by the Englishman – such as “youngest player to score nine on television”. arrow” – were taken from Van Gerwen. If Littler beats him in the final, he will add “youngest man to win a PDC world title” to that list.
In fact, he will destroy it in seven years.
Littler is being touted as the man to dominate darts for the next two decades and could even challenge Phil Taylor’s 16 world titles. Ten years ago, that was the pressure on MvG’s shoulders and for several years he was almost unbeatable. He has won three world championships, the most recent of which was in 2019, and from 2015 to 2016 he won an incredible 13 of the 16 televised PDC ranking tournaments contested at the time.
The Covid pandemic, combined with the wrist surgery he underwent in 2022, has derailed the Dutchman and he is struggling to regain the brilliance he showed for so many years. But there were signs over the past two weeks that Mighty Mike was back to his best: his match average improved in each round until the semi-finals, when he simply did what was needed to average 98.94 to see off an outmatched Dobey.
Much has been written suggesting that Littler’s march to his first world title as a teenager is inevitable. It’s undoubtedly a remarkable story, but Van Gerwen coming back from relative doldrums to win a fourth world title, six years after his last, would be an equally interesting story.
Both immediately set the marker in their semi-final victories as Van Gerwen threw a 180 with his first throw of the match on his way to 14, 12 and 15 darts to take the opening set, while Littler started with a 14 -foot shot and then threw a 180- them back-to-back in the second leg before holding his nerve to dismiss a sudden bunt with a 46-run dismissal to close the opener.
Occasional moments of inspiration from Dobey, such as a “big fish” 170 as he won the third set, threatened to make the first semi-final a contest, but he ultimately failed to consistently live with MvG and the Dutchman kept pulling away – picking his moments and hitting his doubles to cruise to a 6-1 triumph.
As perhaps expected, the 39-year-old Bunting provided a tougher test for his teenage opponent in the second semi-final, looking unfazed by the big stage.
But as if to illustrate the challenge he faced, Bunting averaged 113 in the first set and still lost. Littler repeated his decisive trick in the third set and found a break in the fourth to lift his match average above 106 as he moved 4-0 up and just two sets from the final.
The increased quality compared to the other last four matches was also shown by the fact that the two Englishmen equaled 13 of Van Gerwen and Dobey’s total 180 hits before the end of the fourth set. But the relentless nature of Littler’s game meant Bunting couldn’t live with the teenager as he finally got the set on the board by winning the fifth, only to see his young opponent pull a bullet to take set six after missing the darts at double .
Littler then added a “big fish” finish, which drew a smirk from his grinning opponent as he wrapped up a 6-1 victory that sparked and rocked but never really caught fire and won’t go down in the annals of WDC semi-final greats.
If Peter Wright didn’t throw away the key in the works, with Humphries taking on Littler in an eagerly awaited rematch, then this night of action is likely would they caught fire. In some ways, it represents a missed opportunity, but perhaps a relatively low-stress run through to Friday night’s exhibition was just what was needed. After all, a storm is coming…