We're all a Littler bit darts mad

Irish suppliers hail boom in customised items

- BY KEITH FALKINER

FEW sports have seen an explosion in interest in it quite like darts over the past few years.

The emergence of teenage superstar Luke Littler has sent the game into the stratosphere among youngsters eager to emulate his heroics on the oche- and it's been no different here in Ireland.

That's been good news for the likes of Joanne Lawlor who specialises in supplying customised darts shirts from her home in Co Wicklow.

Joanne, who has been a graphic designer for over two decades and a keen darts player in her own right who has played for the Wicklow county darts team, told the Irish Sunday Mirror she has certainly seen a shift in the demographics since Littler burst on to the scene as a 16-year-old two years ago.

Joanne, who runs shirts4u.ie, said: "About 30% of the orders I get for shirts now come directly from youth players just getting onto me themselves, where as before it would have just been their dads.

"The interest in darts just seems to be growing all the time." Joanne creates her darts shirt designs during her spare time in the evenings and says she can often be at the computer until midnight getting all her orders completed.