LEGENDARY referee Russ Bray says Luke Littler is “living proof of what the JDC is all about” as the organization gears up for its showpiece week-long celebration of junior darts in Gibraltar.
The JDC heads back to The Rock from November 25-29, a year after Littler dazzled at the event a few weeks before his stunning run to the PDC World Championship final at Alexandra Palace.
Littler will not be competing in Gibraltar this year but his legacy will live on – not only in the form of the Luke Littler Legacy Open on day two but with a generation of players eager to emulate his achievements in the pro game.
“Obviously Luke Littler’s success has come in the last 11 months – but when you go back even further than that, there are some very good players who’ve won JDC tournaments before him: players who’ve won tour cards and played in big matches in the PDC,” said Bray.
“Now you’ve got Luke, who’s hit the road running and is a massive, massive sensation. He’s living proof of what the JDC is all about.
“And when you look at it from a family point of view, more people are thinking now: ‘We’ll buy our little’un a dartboard; that’ll go up on the wall”. It’s only one set of darts, and it’s not an expensive sport to play, plus you don’t need another team or jumpers for goalposts. “You can stand there and play darts all day long – and it’s fabulous for your maths. It really is a tremendous thing to be involved with, and the JDC is really showing what’s possible for junior darts.”
Bray has long been a champion of the JDC, having been interested in the progress of the organization following its creation by Steve Brown when he was competing on the PDC ProTour. And he said the fact an academy has sprung up in the town where he lives – which has a population of only 12,000 – underlines the growing success of the organisation.
“It’s been amazing,” he said. “I didn’t expect it to grow as big or as good as it’s got. In its infancy, it’s like most things, it starts off slow – and where do you go from there? “The way the JDC has now been built up, with academies all over the country – and all over the world – is fantastic. I live in Soham in Cambridgeshire, which is a small town, and we’ve even got an academy here at the football club.
“What they’ve done and how they’ve got it out there, and pushed and promoted it, is absolutely sensational. And to have a week of junior darts in Gibraltar to end the year, no one could have envisaged that at all. The impressive thing is how it’s kept evolving and got bigger and better."
Written by Steve Cotton
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