Darts star who struggled at World Matchplay shows true colours with Luke Littler admission

Daily Record

6 days ago

John Henderson only won one match at the World Matchplay in his career, but the Scotsman has hailed the event as one of his favourite PDC tournaments and heaped praise on Luke Littler
John Henderson has praised the World Matchplay as one of his top PDC tournaments, though he conceded that the event's iconic venue could have benefited from improved air con.
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The World Cup-winning Scot appeared on the Winter Gardens stage five times from 2011 to 2019, and despite only securing a single victory against 2005 champion Colin Lloyd, he regards the tournament as 'fantastic.' Current world champion Luke Littler is set to compete in Blackpool with high expectations of adding to his impressive list of achievements.
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Despite a disappointing first-round exit in his Matchplay debut, Aberdeen's Henderson believes Littler will enter the fray with a fearless attitude.
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"I always found the Matchplay... I think Winter Gardens was probably one of the best venues, but I struggled because of the heat," Henderson, who is regularly seen competing in the MODUS Super Series broadcast live on Pluto TV, told the Express.
"I mean, Blackpool in the middle of July, and the Winter Gardens was, it was like an oven and absolutely roasting. I've lost a lot of weight since the last time, so I might have handled it better now, but then I used to sweat a lot and struggled with the heat.
"The tournament itself was fantastic, it really was. My record's not great. I think I only won one game there against Lloydy. I always mention it when the Matchplay comes around.
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"But no, even though I only won once, it was one of my favourite tournaments. It was great, the crowd were magic, they were so close to the stage, everybody's out there. There are a lot of folk on holiday, plus there were a lot of Scots who used to come down to support the boys, so it was good.
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"Luke will go up there with no fear like he normally does. Just another game of darts, and that's the way he looks at it, another game of darts. His attitude's fantastic, he's got a great attitude towards the game."
When questioned about the influence The Nuke has had on darts since bursting onto the scene, Henderson was eager to praise the teenager and admitted he's relieved his own time amongst the PDC elite is nearly finished.
"There's only one word to describe him - he's just a beast," Henderson continued. "He's just phenomenal. Obviously, [a player like] Luke is only coming along every so often, but it really has progressed as the younger generation coming through, I think everybody's buying dartboards now, there's academies up and down the country now.
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"Luke has certainly put his mark on the sport, there's no question about that. I don't know how much practice he does at home, but he doesn't seem to practice too much when he gets to the venue, and he goes and does what he does on a stage. He's obviously been born with a talent, and it's amazing what he's done, and he has made the sport even bigger.
"Phil [Taylor] took it to a level I thought darts could never go to, and then obviously, Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson and Peter Wright have come on, brought it to another level.
"I think Luke's actually surpassed that again and brought it to another level. You just wonder where it's going to peak, and there are more and more youngsters, they're starting at six, seven, eight years old.
"By the time they get to 12, 13, you never know, there's probably loads and loads of Luke Littlers out there. I'm kind of happy that I'm coming to the end of my career now, when you see the standard!"