Luke Littler is looking to go one better than last year by getting his hands on the Sid Waddell Trophy this evening and become the youngest-ever World Champion. Like twelve months ago it is a blockbuster final as he faces none other than Michael Van Gerwen. These two have met twelve times this year and it is six wins apiece. On paper it is undoubtedly Littler’s biggest test of the tournament but he can come through it with a bit left in the tank. Last year when he lost 7-4 to Luke Humphries he missed an opportunity at the outer ring to go 5-2 in front and who knows how it would have played out but he’s matured somewhat this year and that experience can only spur him on. When he has beaten MVG this season it has generally been fairly convincing, his wins against Mighty Mike read 8-5, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3, 11-4 and 6-1. The 11-4 victory was in the Semi Final of the World Series of Darts Finals and the 6-1 success was despite MVG throwing a 112.19 average against him, a second time the Green Machine has averaged 110+ against the Nuke but lost. Luke has played the superior of the two overall this event and has the higher average of the two and has hit 21 more 180’s. He should be on the front foot for plenty of this match. If you examine their respective routes to the final, Littler has rarely been in trouble, yes he was pushed to a last set decider against Ryan Joyce but as usual when he needed to, he raised his game to another level. MVG on the other hand has a mid-match malaise against Jeffrey De Graaf who clawed it back to 2-2 and looked to be in the ascendancy and was almost took to a last set decider by Brendan Dolan. Even in his 6-1 win over Chris Dobey last night in the Semi-Final, his performance didn’t look as composed as Littler’s 6-1 win over Stephen Bunting and you have to say Chris Dobey produced his worst display of the tournament, just couldn’t get going and missed a big opportunity in set two to level the match which he never recovered from. The Nuke has been favourite for this tournament throughout and can justify that tag with a convincing victory tonight.