Suffolk’s Ryan Meikle, of Leiston, puts on valiant display in defeat to Luke Littler at PDC World Championships

Suffolk’s Ryan Meikle put on a valiant display against the world number four and teenage sensation Luke Littler in his 3-1 round 2 defeat at the PDC World Championships last night, in a match the latter described as his ‘toughest ever’.

The 28-year-old Leiston star, nicknamed 'The Barber' after his part-time profession in Ipswich, defeated Fallon Sherrock 3-2 in the first round to set up the face-off with the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.

However, ‘The Nuke’ proved to strong for Meikle, who clinched the final set with legs of 11, ten and 11 darts at an astonishing average of 140.91.

The 17-year-old almost produced darts gold in his blistering match-clinching set, missing double 12 for a nine-darter in the second leg.

Meikle himself averaged 91.93 throughout the contest to Littler’s 100.85. Along the way he hit four 180s and had a high-checkout of 56.

Littler claimed the first set in a nervy opening encounter before Meikle showed his darting prowess to clinch the second. However the fourth seed’s experience, despite his age, came to show as he quickly sealed off the next two sets to put himself into the third round.

‘The Nuke’ was visibly emotional after the match, cutting his post-match interview with Sky Sports short to embrace his family in the crowd.

He said: “That was probably the toughest game I’ve ever played, but you’ve got to get over the line.

“I don’t know where I pulled that last set from, but I just had to fight until the end.

“When I got on that stage I felt really nervous, but I managed to find my game from somewhere.”

Littler will face either Ritchie Edhouse or Ian White in the next round.