Poland Darts Masters: Luke Littler overcomes 'rust' to claim latest World Series title

The 17-year-old top seed triumphed 8-3 at the PreZero Arena in Gliwice with a three-dart average of 101.84 to cap a fine day’s work in difficult circumstances as Peter Wright and Michael Smith made him dig deep to reach the final.

Speaking on stage in front of a crowd of 9,000 afterwards, Littler said: “I’ve just had a week off in Orlando and there was a bit of rust, but I think this weekend I’ve played well.

“I want to win as much as I can and this year, the first half of the period, it’s been really good, picking up six titles, hitting numerous nine-darters, and I can’t wait for the second half of the season to kick in.”

Littler started the final in ominous fashion and hit a 164 checkout to take a 4-1 lead and lay a foundation which proved decisive.

He had earlier survived a tense semi-final with Smith, who led 4-1 and narrowly missed the bull going for a 124 finish and then two match darts at double eight in the deciding leg before Littler found double five to prevail 7-6.

It proved something of a battle throughout with Littler having earlier taken out treble 19, double top, double top for 137 to level at 5-5.

Cross turned in a hugely impressive semi-final display as he routed Michael van Gerwen 7-2 with an average of 106.68 to reach his third World Series final in as many weeks.

Littler eased past former world champion Wright 6-3 in the quarter-finals, where Smith had edged out Luke Humphries 6-5.

Van Gerwen’s progress to the last four was serene as he whitewashed Croatian number one Boris Krcmar 6-0, while Cross beat Stephen Bunting – who checked out on 164 in the third leg – 6-4 in a tighter contest.