How Luke Littler fared in Players Championship 1 in Wigan today
LUKE ‘The Nuke’ Littler was back in action today as the 2025 Professional Darts Corporation ProTour season got started.
The Warrington sensation was among the 128-strong field competing in Players Championship 1 in Wigan.
There are 34 Players Championship events across the year, also ending at Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan on October 30 and from there the entries will be determined for the Players Championship Finals in Minehead from November 21-23.
Only three of the 128 tour-card holders were absent as a host of new additions to the professional circuit competed alongside the sport's established stars.
In today’s first round, 18-year-old Littler faced one of the newcomers to the tour - Canadian 56-year-old Jim Long.
Littler went through 6-4 to book himself a last-64 clash with Martin Lukeman, the man who Littler destroyed 16-3 to win the Grand Slam in November.
This time it was much closer and ‘The Nuke’ only averaged 87 with his scoring but he was enough to progress 6-3.
That handed Littler a last-32 encounter with Joe Cullen, who the teenager to defeated in the final of last year’s Austrian Darts Open.
Cullen, though, proved too strong on this occasion for the 18-year-old, landing eight maximums in a convincing 6-3 victory, taking five straight legs as Littler missed 15 doubles.
‘The Rockstar’ then pushed on to the semi-finals, where he edged out world number one Luke Humphries 7-6 in a last-leg decider.
But Rob Cross beat Cullen 8-3 to win the season-opening Players Championship.
Cross – who was crowned world champion in 2018 – had come back from 3-0 down to reel off seven consecutive legs as he beat Andrew Gilding 7-3 with a 108.5 average to book his place in the final.
The ‘Voltage’ continued his momentum against Cullen, hitting a 129 finish on the bullseye to open up a 6-3 lead before closing out victory with a 40 per cent doubles success to pick up his 10th Players Championship title.
Littler and his rivals will turn their attention to Players Championship 2 in Wigan tomorrow when play will again start at 1pm, with coverage from four boards streamed on PDCTV and across bookmakers' websites worldwide.
