Littler dominates Dolan to extend his wild Ally Pally adventure

Teenager displays dazzling form in becoming youngest player to reach the last four

- Jonathan Liew

It was a wild and festive atmosphere at the People's Palace, the kind you get when the darts is back, the crowd is still drinking off last night's hangover and the result is not remotely in doubt.

They came to praise Luke Littler, not to bury him, and the 16-yearold from Warrington duly obliged by despatching the gallant but outmatched Brendan Dolan by five sets to one. As the tables emptied, the venue reverberated to the strains of "Walking in a Littler Wonderland" (and yes, at some point someone is going to have to come up with a better chant than that).

In so doing Littler became the first debutant to reach the semi-finals since Nathan Aspinall five years ago, and the youngest player by far. How much longer does this tale have to run? He plays the 2018 champion Rob Cross tonight, the first time he will have faced a top-10 player on the stage, and will start as favourite. Then comes the final. Then, only another 15 more world titles to chase down Phil Taylor, and the whole of the rest of his life to do it in.

But we're getting grotesquely ahead of ourselves here, because Littler's victory was really only one half of the story. Yes, the raw numbers - an average of 102, rising to 122 in the second set, a checkout percentage of 47% - were impressive enough.

Equally, though, he was barely tested by an opponent who after putting out Gerwyn Price and Gary Anderson simply seemed to run out of puff.