COME ON LUKE
It’s not very often that the writer of this column reveals the secret information behind Lightcliffe’s sophisticated marketing strategy but readers might be interested in a little story about a quiet Tuesday morning meeting a few months ago.
GM John, a keen darts player, advised that a local darts player was making waves in the game at the tender age of 16 and then suggested that we might invite this young man to be one of our affiliates. After a couple of friendly phone calls this young man visited the dealership, signed on the dotted line and duly became a sponsored Lightcliffe affiliate.
Being totally honest the writer of this column, not being a darts player was a little sceptical but thought that a “score your own discount” afternoon with a local lad who could pop a few doubles might be a good idea.
Fast forward three months and darts “wunderkind” Luke Littler is poised to be the youngest world champion ever when he plays in the World Darts Championship this evening. To say his journey has been remarkable is an understatement and statistics show both an incredible scoring average and maturity and composure beyond his years on the biggest stage. His run saw the 16-year-old beat Rob Cross with triple 19s and triple 20s flowing effortlessly in the final sets as Littler eventually secured a six set to two triumph that gives him a shot at securing £500,000 in the final, and millions of pounds of sponsorship earnings to boot. Luke will now play in the final tonight against new world No 1 Luke Humphries who beat Scott Williams 6-0 on the same evening.
Darts in the UK hasn’t really seen this level of interest since the days of Jocky Wilson and Eric “crafty cockney” Bristow and this young man has quite simply captured the country’s imagination. With Sky achieving record breaking viewing figures and social media stats increasing like a pinball machine his aptitude for elite competition simply beggars belief.
It goes without saying that everyone here at Lightcliffe Skoda will be cheering our boy on tonight I’d like to ask all the good people of Warrington and the surrounding area to join us.
Come on Luke – you can do it!!