The World Darts Championship schedule for Sunday night includes a match between Raymond Van Barneveld and Luke Littleton.

It’s the last darts night of the year, and boy, is it a great one. Fans will be glued to the screen on Saturday night when Luke Littler and Raymond van Barneveld square off.

There have been cautious fantasies over this potential fight ever since Peter Wright was eliminated in the second round. Arguably the match of the round pits forty-year-old darts veteran Van Barneveld, the five-time world champion, against the sixteen-year-old darting wonderkid with a bright future.

Littler’s incredible accomplishments have earned him that expectation all by himself. The Englishman qualified for Lakeside in 2022 and had already won an open competition on the WDF circuit at the age of 14. Littler also threw a nine-darter in a JDC circuit webcast tournament the same year. Littler has previously won two titles as the world champion at the JDC (organisation for talents up to seventeen years old). Littler is currently the current youth world champion at the PDC, where young players up to the age of 24 are eligible to participate. Littler has now won five events in his first season on the PDC Development Tour.

Littler earned a spot in the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace through the Development Tour. With an average of 106, he had a stunning debut there, defeating Christian Kist 3-0 in sets. Subsequently, Littler had to yield to Andrew Gilding (3-1) and Matt Campbell (4-1).

Van Barneveld entered this competition in a new light, having had a fresh set of arrows custom-made by his supplier Target. The 56-year-old Hague native claims that after years of looking, he eventually discovered the ideal setup.

The five-time world champion made a strong first impression on Radek Szaganski. That match was won 3-1 by the Dutch darts pioneer with an average of over one hundred. But against Jim Williams in his second game, there was a noticeable drop. Despite having an 89 average in that game, “Barney” prevailed 4-1 because Williams missed a lot of doubles. If that was a one-off slump, it will be evident in the game against Littler.

There was a lot of expectation for a fourth-round match between Gary Anderson and Gerwyn Price before the World Darts Championship. Though Price made a mistake in the third round against Dolan, Anderson did his share. Thus, ‘The Flying Scotsman’ squares up against the Northern Irishman. For the second time in his career, Dolan may make it to the last eight of the World Darts Championship, something Anderson has accomplished no fewer than nine times in the PDC.

Luke Humphries, the pre-tournament favourite, and Joe Cullen square off in the last major darts encounter of 2023. In his last encounter with Ricardo Pietreczko, Humphries almost avoided defeat, but ‘Cool Hand Luke’ prevailed 4-3 after a valiant effort to overcome a 1-3 deficit. Defeating Ryan Searle 4-2, Cullen advanced to the round of sixteen. The two Englishmen each managed to win five of the 10 prior meetings. Humphries did, however, prevail in five of their previous seven bouts.