“I used to beat Luke Littler's grandad all the time at darts.”

That is what Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler’s next opponent in the World Darts Championship, Ian White, has been telling the media this week.

The pair will square up on the Alexandra Palace stage in a third-round battle of the generations tonight at around 9.45pm.

Ian White, walking to the Ally Pally stage for his second-round contest with 29th seed Ritchie Edhouse last weekend (Image: PDC)

But White’s memory may be playing tricks on him – a little!

A quick shuffle through past pages of the Runcorn and Widnes World brought into view a Runcorn Apec Taxis Darts League round-up highlighting Phil Littler and his Albion partner Gary Kneale securing a 2-0 win against Clarry B’s White and Gerry Burke in a doubles competition 20 years ago.

Flashback: The online version of the article which appeared in the Runcorn and Widnes World in September, 2004 (Image: Runcorn and Widnes World)

Ian White, as he appeared in the Runcorn and Widnes World in 2005 following England selection (Image: Runcorn and Widnes World)

So, even from a quick glance, the Littler family do have at least one historic win against White to smile about and tonight Luke could exact some revenge on behalf of his grandad for any losses that did occur in Runcorn’s pubs back in the 90s and 00s.

It will be the first time that Warrington-born 17-year-old ‘The Nuke’ and Runcorn 54-year-old ‘Diamond’ have gone head-to-head in a PDC event.

Their places in the current darting picture are poles apart, with Littler being the wonderkid with 10 titles under his belt in his breakout year and currently ranked world number four, while White is in the twilight of his career, ranked 57th, portrays that he does not take himself seriously and is simply playing for fun.

Littler, who achieved a world championship best score in the final set as he defeated Ryan Meikle 3-1 in his opening game, is clear favourite to win in front of a growing army of his fans but he will be wary his opponent is more than capable of an upset after hyping up the contest while playing down his own chances.

Luke Littler and Ryan Meikle share a laugh after their second-round contest (Image: PDC)

White, who dumped European champion Ritchie Edhouse out of the championship last weekend and defeated Michael van Gerwen 6-1 in the Players Championship Finals last month, said: “It was my goal to get through to play Luke after Christmas.

“The lad’s talented, we all know that. He’s put darts on the map again. Everyone wants to come to the darts.

“But I just want to say, he’s from Runcorn the same as me. He’s No2, I’m No1.”

White laughed his head off at his own comment and added: “What did Luke do last time out – 11, 10, 11-dart (leg wins). Maybe I’ll have to do 9, 9, 9.”

And with that, White burst into more laughter.

“He’s playing good darts, but I think I just have to go on stage and enjoy it and give him the best game I can,” added White.

“People know I’m a good laugh and a bit of fun. I’ve got no pressure. I’ll just go out there and play my darts and hopefully the nine-darter will come in – I’ll probably need about eight of them!

“I’m looking forward to it, but I’ll upset about 6,000 people in the crowd if I win.”

At stake is a place in the last 16 against either Ryan Joyce or Ryan Searle.