LITTLER'S SICK OF ONE-HIT

Luke slams rivals who fire against him and then flop

-  Mike Walters

LUKE LITTLER admits he is fair game for rivals who sledge him now he has turned 18.

But the boy who became a world champion has already grown wary of opponents who raise their game to beat him and then flop in the next round, saying: "It does annoy me."

Littler begins the defence of his Premier League title here tonight with a repeat of his World Championship final against Michael van Gerwen and a flea in his ear from the Dutchman, right, for turning up late at the players' photoshoot on the Titanic slipway.

If Littler was expecting the target on his back to become a burden of adulthood, he did not have to wait long for the first shots to be fired.