Luke Littler 'annihilated' World Matchplay star's husband aged 12 after savage prediction

Daily Mirror

2 days ago

Women's World Matchplay star Lorraine Winstanley recalls seeing her husband lose to a 12-year-old Luke Littler before going on to work with the 2025 world champion
Luke Littler 'annihilated' a PDC Tour star at the age of 12 to fulfil his pre-match prediction. Female darts star Lorraine Winstanley has recalled her first encounter with Littler, now 18, at a tournament on the Isle of Man.
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Her husband Dean Winstanley, who hit a nine-darter at the PDC World Championship in 2012, was the player who suffered the drubbing after The Nuke had confidently predicted a one-sided victory.
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Lorraine, who will be part of the Women's World Matchplay on July 27, recalled: 'He's absolutely annihilated my husband on the Isle of Man. I can't remember the format but whatever it was, Dean's leg tally was zero!
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'I think Luke had said to him, 'I'm going to beat you 3-0.' And Dean was like, 'Yeah, alright mate,' but he did! He wasn't saying it in a cocky way, it was a statement, 'I'm going to beat you 3-0.' That's my first memory of him.
'I've known Luke a long time because we then played for England together. He's a lovely lad from a lovely family. He's just brilliant, isn't he?'
Lorraine, as Target Darts' head of youth development, went on to work closely with Target-backed Littler and is proud of what the teenager has achieved in such a short period of time, including winning the world title in January.
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'He's done an amazing job for darts across all ages,' said Lorraine, 49, who provides support and mentorship to the 30-odd players in the leading manufacturer's Elite 1 development programme.
'You can speak to anybody of any age and if they've not heard of Luke Littler, they've definitely been living under a rock.
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'What Luke has done for the game is what Fallon [Sherrock] has done for the women's side of the game. When she had that really good run at the World Championship [making the final in 2024], it opened up the game to a whole different audience, people who weren't interested in darts.
'With Luke, it's exciting, it's a new face. He's burst onto the scene and he doesn't disappoint, does he? He came through from our Elite 1 programme. He's the perfect example of how the system works and we're on the lookout for the next superstar.'
Lorraine is also proud of the way Littler has developed on and off the oche. Having been thrown in at the deep end with various media and commercial demands, he is now a more assured figure compared to the shyer teenager he was a couple of years ago.
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'He has grown massively in his ability to deal with the media because he was thrown into the spotlight. I think he dealt with it really well,' said Lorraine, who faces Noa-Lynn van Leuven in the Women's Matchplay quarter-finals.
'You only have to look back at interviews he gave at the WDF World Championship, about three years ago. If you didn't ask a question that wasn't a yes or no answer, you didn't get a great deal from him. At the end of the day, he was a young teenage lad.
'Now, he's much more natural in front of the camera and speaks really well. He's grown massively, and he's had to do that overnight. Hats off to him for the way he's coped with it all.'
Littler begins his Matchplay campaign against Ryan Searle on Sunday night as he looks to add one of the sport's biggest prizes to his growing collection.