Pizza-loving 'Luke the Nuke' grabs Britain's imagination

LONDON — Darts may have its origins as a British pub game but, at 16, losing world championship finalist Luke Littler is still too young to legally buy an alcoholic drink.

The teenage debutant's run to Wednesday's all-English showpiece match at London's Alexandra Palace, where he lost 7-4 to world No 1 Luke Humphries after missing a dart to lead 5-2, earned him a runner-up check for 200,000 pounds ($253,000) just months after his high-school exams.

Premier League footballers were among the sports fans captivated by the story of Littler, who before his opening match two weeks ago was ranked 164th in the world but now boasts close to 500,000 Instagram followers and 100,000 on X, formerly Twitter.