Littler prepares to throw everything at title defence

Opponents have been resorting to dark arts to get under Littler's skin, but the reigning world champion, whose bid for a second title begins at Alexandra Palace tonight, insists no one can knock him off his game

- Lawrence Ostlere

It is a cold Monday afternoon in central London and, down in a darts-themed basement bar on The Strand, the great and the good of the game have gathered for the World Championship draw.

Michael van Gerwen is being interviewed in a dimly lit corner, as Luke Humphries arrives down the spiral staircase with his manager. Sky Sports broadcasters are applying final bits of makeup while dishevelled sports writers eat too many canapes (those little pizza slices are a weakness). We wait patiently to speak to the world champion, Luke Littler, who is in the middle of the room, beating a German TV presenter at 501 while sitting on a chair.

Before he comes over to see us, Littler speaks to a mother and her 10-year-old son, Josh, who is recovering from meningitis. Littler saw the dart-lover's story in a BBC article and invited him to the draw event. He signs a shirt and hands over some darts as cameras flash.

We get 10 minutes with Littler to discuss his world title defence, two of which are taken up by a beloved colleague asking the world's longest question (as sports journalists, we have an impressive ability to use 200 words when 10 will do). It is an intimate setting where Littler is surrounded by a handful of reporters on a small circular table lit by a hanging lamp, and what is so striking is how comfortable he is in the spotlight. Littler is at ease as the king of darts, smiling as he talks about his year dismantling all comers.

It is a scene that perhaps only sport can create, in which a bunch of middle-aged men are hanging on every word of an 18-year-old from Warrington who has just passed his driving test. But then Littler is special, a young man with a gift, master of a skill which I am later reminded is utterly impossible in a game with another journalist.