Luke Littler’s 180 returns have been on the rise as he has worked his way through the rounds at this year’s World Darts Championship. ‘The Nuke’ treated the Ally Pally crowd to 10 maximums in his first win at this year's showpiece against Ryan Meikle before going on to rack up 12 180s during his round 3 victory over Ian White. The teenage sensation then filled up the treble 20 segment on 14 separate occasions when surviving a scare against Ryan Joyce in the fourth round (winning 4-3). He then went one better in landing 15 maximums during his quarter-final success over Nathan Aspinall on New Year’s Day. Given that the format will increase to a best-of-11 sets affair at the semi-final stage, Littler looks well placed to land 17 or more 180s against Stephen Bunting. As well as posting another monstrous maximum return, Littler is also worthy of support to deliver a minimum of 2 100+ checkouts. The 17-year-old phenom fired in 3 checkouts in excess of 100 in overcoming Aspinall at the quarter-final stage last night. He also wrapped up legs with 100 or more remaining in his respective round 2 and 3 wins over, the aforementioned, Meikle and White.

In what promises to be a fascinating semi-final showdown, backing both Luke Littler and Stephen Bunting to hit a 170 checkout looks well worth a shot at 50/1. Both players have a tendency for leaving themselves on 170 when the opportunity presents itself. Moreover, the pair have repeatedly proven that they are capable of reeling in the ‘big fish’. Littler has already landed the biggest finish of them all on the Ally Pally stage, having done so in last year’s final. He has since gone on to pin 170 checkouts in the 2024 Premier League, UK Open and during the final of the recent Players Championship Finals. As for Bunting, he delivered a roof-raising 170 checkout at the Grand Slam of Darts a little over a month ago, not to mention he sensationally nailed 2 of them in the same game against Richard Veenstra at the Austrian Darts Open back in April.