LUKE Littler’s love affair with Belgium darts continues.
Warrington’s world champion defeated Northern Ireland’s Josh Rock 8-7 in Antwerp on Sunday night to win the Flanders Darts Trophy, adding to the Belgian Darts Open silverware he retained earlier this year.
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Littler, who defeated Josh Rock 17-14 in the World Matchplay semi-finals in July in their only previous PDC meeting, came back from 4-1 down in the final to seal his second European Tour crown of the year.
The 18-year-old got his nose in front for the first time in the 11th leg but couldn’t shake off the resilient Rock.
The last five legs were all won against the throw, including Rock stunning Littler with a 161 checkout to force a deciding leg with ‘The Nuke’ lying in wait to sink double eight on his next visit.
But Littler punished Rock’s poor start in the concluding leg, getting home in 11 darts.
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Succeeding with only a 33.3 per cent checkout rate, it was Littler’s power scoring and his 107.4 average per three arrows that did the job for him.
Although Littler admitted to being left ‘shocked and shaken’ by an emergency tooth removal on Thursday, he put it behind him by the time of his first match in Antwerp on Saturday.
Littler made light of his disrupted preparations as he blew Dylan Slevin away to claim his place in the last 16.
That brought him a clash with Ryan Searle on Sunday afternoon, and he progressed 6-3 in a quality contest.
Littler achieved a 110 average against Searle’s 104, and achieved 60 per cent on his checkout doubles.
That average dropped to 96, with 40 per cent on the doubles, when he was pushed to the wire by Damon Heta in the quarter-finals on Sunday night before winning 6-5.
He then destroyed Daryl Gurney 7-1 in the semi-final that followed, with his average creeping up to 99, his checkouts to 50 per cent and he produced two ton-plus finishes to set up his final showdown with Josh Rock.