Littler himself summed up the final when he told Sky Sports after the match: “I have no idea how I’ve done that.”
In his own words, he was “gone” with Price 5-0 up and allowing Littler to have just one double attempt, in the opening leg, such was his scoring dominance.
Littler did avoid the whitewash, with an ironic celebration showing he felt it was nothing more than a consolation. But Price then missed three match darts in the next leg, which seemed to destroy his confidence.
And while Littler was freewheeling with nothing to lose, the 41-year-old tightened up with two more missed match darts as the impossible turned to the improbable, and eventually the inevitable, as Littler pinched a memorable success.
“It was very strange,” he admitted. “The first leg was a bit of fun, got my 180 and then waved them goodbye because when Gerwyn Price is on double tops he doesn’t usually miss.
“I was so gone. I might as well as have been off stage, but this is darts, things happen. Darts is a silly old game.”
Littler finished with a 95.54 average in the final with four 180s and a 50% checkout rate in the end – but the stats hardly tell any of the story as Price went away kicking himself and Littler walking off with the trophy still in a state of disbelief.
