Hilarious GAA signs spotted among darts crowd as Luke Littler makes history by becoming youngest world champ ever

IRISH eyes spotted a pair of hilarious GAA-related signs among the darts crowd before Luke Littler made history at the Ally Pally.

The 17-year-old solidified himself as a real deal sporting superstar by going one better at the World Darts Championship than he did in last year’s debut effort.

Reuters

He swept aside three-time champion Michael van Gerwen by seven sets to three[/caption]

@CS_Raiden

During Littler’s walk-out an opportunistic Kilkenny native showcased his love of his local GAA club to the watching masses on Sky Sports[/caption]

Billy Fielding

…conversely there was a less loving message to their nearby rivals Piltown[/caption]

Spud Keeley

There were in fact some Piltown die-hards in attendance though![/caption]

But several Irish viewers were taken by a few signs held up in the background as ‘The Nuke’ initially made his way up onto the stage.

One beautifully placed one took up a prime bit of real estate on everyone’s TV with its message of ‘Hon Mooncoin’ easy to make out.

For those unfamiliar with the area, it’s a parish located in south Kilkenny near the border with Waterford.

Its main rivals in hurling are nearby club Piltown – who also got a shout-out in another sign held up by a fan.

However, this was of the sledging variety as it stated ‘We hate Piltown’.

But the good people of Piltown did have their honour defended by another few attendees who were snapped with signs aiming the hate right back at Mooncoin.

It was the cherry on top of what was a very entertaining night’s viewing as Littler drew comparisons to Tiger Woods at the 1997 Masters.

Littler is now darts’ youngest-ever world champ, breaking the record set by his opponent, Michael Van Gerwen, who won the first of his world titles aged 24.

But the phenomenal darting manchild did more than that. He broke the spirit of the finest player of the previous generation.

The man from the Netherlands had no answer to a kid in Never-Never Land, as Luke the Nuke ran out a 7-3 winner.

And Littler, a year after he’d reached the final on his first visit to this great jamboree at Ally Pally, lifted the Sid Waddell Trophy, named after the great bard of the oche.

One of Waddell’s greatest quotes went like this: ‘When Alexander of Macedonia was 33, he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer…(Eric) Bristow is only 27.”

Well that is a decade older than Littler is now.

All the fancy-dress shenanigans in the crowd make this PDC event an enormously joyous one, but they almost did the 17-year-old a disservice.

SERIOUS TALENT

Because, seriously, this wasn’t panto. It was one of the finest performances you could ever witness from a teen in any sport.

After just 24 minutes of playing time, Littler led by four sets to nil. It was a magnificent display of cruelty.

This was Van Gerwen’s seventh world final but, especially in the early stages, he was made to look like a panic-stricken novice.

There had been a sense of inevitability and destiny about Littler reaching this final – especially after reigning champion Luke Humphries was knocked out before the duo could meet in the semis.

But before the start this one had seemed a far tougher one to call. Van Gerwen had Littler had met on 12 previous occasions and the head-to-head was tied at 6-6.

Van Gerwen has been the dominant figure in the sport since the end of Phil Taylor’s long period of dominance.

Yet six years had passed since the Dutchman was last crowned champion and he had lost two world finals since, undergone two serious operations to correct a jaw problem and suffered from debilitating bouts of gout.

While 35 is far from old in darts terms, he did look like a man fighting against Father Time as a new era was ushered in by a youngster going nuclear.