Luke Littler edged his way into the last eight of World Series of Darts Finals with a narrow 10-9 win over Nathan Aspinall amid constant whistling from members in the crowd.
Littler came out on top in a nail-biting last-leg shootout to book a place in the quarter-finals with Jonny Clayton despite missing 22 darts at a double.
Earlier in the match, Aspinall alerted referee Charlie Costorphine to tell members of the crowd to stop whistling, but it continued.
The whistling, which was louder when Littler was at the oche, seemed to throw the ‘Nuke’ off his rhythm as he slipped from 3-1 up to 5-3 down.
Aspinall missed two darts at a double to make it 7-5 and Littler went on to take the next two legs to get back into the contest.
It looked like Littler would take the next leg but the game took another twist as the world champion’s double woes continued, missing two tries at double 15 which allowed Aspinall to level the contest once more at 7-7.
The crowd issues continued and Costorphine again had to remind spectators about their behaviour in the 17th leg just before Aspinall put himself 9-8 to the good and within one leg of becoming the first person to knock Littler out of a Premier event in 329 days.
However, Littler showed his class and reeled off the last two legs and pinned double 20 to book his spot in the final day
After the game, he said: “We know what Nathan is like. He pushed me all the way and that’s what he’s done there yet again, and maybe if he had a better start in previous legs it would be a different game.
“I only played well in the last session. The first two sessions I didn’t feel confident.
“I know my doubling is never going to be 100 per cent perfect. I’ve just got to come back tomorrow and sharpen up.”
Clayton battled back from 6-4 down to beat Motomu Sakai 10-8 and reach the quarter-finals of the competition while Gerwyn Price averaged nearly 98 in a comfortable 10-5 victory over Canadian Jim Long.
Price will face James Wade, who beat Wessel Nijman 10-7, while former world champion Luke Humphries was dumped out of the competition by Dirk van Duijvenbode, losing 10-9, and he will face Gian van Veen.
