World No 1 Littler swats aside Ryan Searle 6-1 in semi
Van Veen wins classic against Gary Anderson 6-3
It’s barely a couple of years since a 16-year-old Luke Littler and a 21-year-old Gian van Veen came through a 96-player field at Milton Keynes to qualify for the final of the world youth championship. There’s a charming photo of the pair of them with their arms around each other, silly little smiles plastered on to their silly little faces, the cutest high-street haircuts you’ve ever seen. Two kids at the very start of an unforgettable journey.
Did either of them foresee, in those sepia-tinted days of August 2023, that the journey would convey them this far, this fast? I reckon Littler did. There’s never been much room for doubt and scepticism in there. His whole world has been stepping up, throwing a dart and watching it go exactly where he wants it to. Four months later, he would go to Alexandra Palace and change the sport for ever.
Van Veen? I’m not so sure. Even when asked last week whether he thought he was ready to play a world championship final, we got an equivocal kind of answer. There is a reason and realism to him. His whole world has been doubt, misgiving, setback, recalibration, renewal. Belief is evidence of things not seen, and if Van Veen never dreamed of getting this far, perhaps it was because he has learned never to take an achievement for granted until he can physically hold it in his hands.
