PETER CROUCH has BANNED Luke Littler from his podcast so he can concentrate on darts.
The lanky ex-England striker also wants to lock wife Abbey Clancy in a “dark room” until she hits a nine-dart perfect leg!
Crouch and his co-presenters, former Chelsea star Steve Sidwell and Capital DJ Chris Stark, discussed having Warrington wonderkid Littler on their show.
Littler is set for his debut in the Premier League in Cardiff tonight, less than a month after reaching the World Championship final.
Crouch said: “I’d love Luke Littler on, I’d like to speak to him. You have people who burst on the scene at 16.
“I was watching the darts, they had a list of people who have won things at 16. Obviously it was before he lost [the final].
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“Martina Hingis, Wayne Rooney, they’ve all gone on to massive things. It would be interesting to see where his head’s at, at this age.”
But Stark, who appeared as a darts dancer during the World Championship at the Ally Pally, says the 17-year-old should be protected from media attention.
He said: “Do you think that’s part of the problem that he’s had this massive success at 16. He’s managed to get this far on his own without all the attention.
“A lot of the criticism is that suddenly he’s out doing all interviews. Maybe the best thing we could do as a podcast is almost run a campaign to say, we are not going to get you on the podcast.
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“We are going to be the only media outlet to say we don’t want Luke on because we want him to concentrate on his darts.
“This amount of weird attention that appears you must have seen it galvanise some players and people but it does have a negative effect as well.
“Maybe that’s we do with Luke. We give him a couple more years, win the Worlds at some point, then invite him on the podcast after that.
“Until then we operate a policy of everyone should leave Luke Littler alone.”
We do not want Luke Littler on the podcast!
Peter Crouch
On the pressure of being a young sportsman, Sidwell added: “It depends on the individual. If they’ve got the mindset that can carry it off, some can’t.”
Crouch added: “I wouldn’t like it personally. At 16 I was miles off it. But we are making a stand, we do not want Luke Littler on the podcast!”
The trio also discussed the hot topic of what is hardest to achieve; a hole-in-one, 147 snooker break or nine-darter.
Crouch said: “Even if you’re a bad golfer you can get a hole in one. Whereas for me a 147 is unachievable for anyone who is not a proper snooker player.
“A nine-darter is still nine darts. It’s so hard. It’s absolutely exceptional. It’s harder for a professional dart player to hit a nine-darter than a professional snooker player to get a 147.”
Sidwell continued: “The easiest is a hole in one. I think the hardest is a 147. It’s a big one, it’s sparked a lot of controversy.”
Stark then came up with a madcap idea to test what is the hardest to do with Crouch’s wife Clancy. He said: “We need to test it with a novice. We need Abs in a room, how long would it take her to do a nine-darter?”
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Crouch concluded: “You are asking me to lock Abbey away in a dark room. For charity? We wouldn’t see her, she’d come out with a beard this long!
“She knows how to hold a dart, she can’t hold a cue. We’ll try it but we might not see her for 15 years!”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
