{"id":4585,"date":"2025-10-14T06:37:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/?p=4585"},"modified":"2025-10-14T06:37:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:37:59","slug":"greaves-stuns-littler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/greaves-stuns-littler\/","title":{"rendered":"Greaves stuns Littler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Beau Greaves will take on reigning champion Gian van Veen in the World Youth Dart Championship final next month, after defeating World Champion Luke Littler in an astonishing semi-final showdown in Wigan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two-time Women&#8217;s World Matchplay winner Greaves produced a series of superb performances on a gripping day of action at the Robin Park Leisure Centre, which culminated with an epic contest between two of the sport&#8217;s most exciting talents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Littler, fresh from lifting the World Grand Prix title on Sunday evening, averaged 107.4 and landed a brace of ten-darters against an unflappable Greaves, missing double 12 for a nine-darter in the fourth leg of the contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Greaves wasn&#8217;t to be denied, conjuring up a sensational 11-dart break of throw in the decider to prevail with a 105 average and become the first woman to advance to a World Youth Championship final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The event began with a round-robin format on Monday, as 128 of the world&#8217;s top youth talents were split into 32 groups of four, with the top two players from each group advancing to the knockout phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Doncaster trailblazer opened her challenge with a hat-trick of wins in the round-robin phase, whitewashing American Joseph Lynaugh before recording successive 5-2 wins against Noah Roeschlein and Keanu van Velzen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following a six-leg blitz of Coby Jones-Swanson in her opening knockout game, Greaves stormed through to the last 16 with a 6-2 success against Dutchman Danny Jansen, a former ProTour winner back in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 21-year-old was then forced to overturn a 4-2 deficit against Tyler Thorpe, reeling off four consecutive legs in 14, 15, 13 and 15 darts to average north of 99 and create a quarter-final tie with Germany&#8217;s Liam Maendl-Lawrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Greaves defied a brief rally from\u00a0Maendl-Lawrance to set up a blockbuster clash against Littler, where she produced one of the best displays of her darting career to maintain her bid for further televised silverware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Veen, meanwhile, is bidding to join Dimitri Van den Bergh in claiming back-to-back World Youth Championship titles, after preserving his hopes\u00a0of retaining the crown with a 6-4 success against Poland&#8217;s Sebastian Bialecki in the last four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 23-year-old kicked off his title defence with a statement display against his compatriot\u00a0Wessel Tempelaars, averaging 107.36 to triumph in five straight legs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Veen completed a clean sweep in the round-robin phase with victories against\u00a0Zac Prince and\u00a0Ronan McDonagh, which he backed up with resounding wins over his fellow countrymen\u00a0Damian Vetjens and\u00a0Jeffrey Keen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Dutchman then survived a major scare in edging out Ireland&#8217;s Aidan O&#8217;Hara in the last 16, although normal service was resumed when he averaged 99 to dispatch Development Tour winner Cam Crabtree 6-2 in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bialecki established a 3-2 lead following a tentative start to their semi-final, but a three-leg burst of 14, 11 and 15-darters saw Van Veen become the first player to qualify for three consecutive World Youth Championship finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Veen was beaten by Littler in the 2023 decider, and the pair looked destined to renew their rivalry in next month&#8217;s showpiece after the Warrington wonderkid landed five ton-plus averages throughout the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Littler&#8217;s highest average of the tournament was a 108.59 in his group stage win against Icelandic talent\u00a0Alexander-Veigar Thorvaldsson, where he wrapped up proceedings with legs of 11 and 10 darts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The World Champion then conceded just three legs against Tom Garfield and\u00a0McDonagh to book his spot in the last 16, where he fought back from 5-3 adrift to topple rising star Charlie Manby, surviving match darts in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both players averaged over 102 in a contest littered with quality, and Littler continued that sparkling form to complete a 6-1 demolition of\u00a0Jamai van den Herik in the last eight, converting 160 and 164 finishes along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nevertheless, Littler lost out at the same stage as Poland&#8217;s number two Bialecki, who had\u00a0fired in an 11-dart leg to topple former UK Open semi-finalist Keane Barry in a dramatic quarter-final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following a remarkable day&#8217;s play in Wigan, the 2025 Winmau World Youth Championship final will take place at Butlin&#8217;s Minehead Resort on Sunday November 23, between the semi-finals and final of the Ladbrokes Players Championship Finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Greaves is aiming to add the World Youth Championship to her extensive haul of titles, while Van Veen can cement himself as the most successful player in the competition&#8217;s history if he pockets the \u00a312,000 top prize.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>RESULTS<\/strong><br><strong>Last 16: <\/strong>Luke Littler 6-5 Charlie Manby; Jamai van den Herik 6-3\u00a0Lok Yin Lee; Beau Greaves 6-4 Tyler Thorpe; Liam Maendl-Lawrance 6-2 Lewis Gurney; Gian van Veen 6-5 Aidan O&#8217;Hara; Cam Crabtree 6-5 Nunjo Dewaele; Keane Barry 6-3 Adam Gawlas; Sebastian Bialecki 6-5 Roy Rietbergen<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Quarter-Finals<\/strong>: Luke Littler 6-1\u00a0Jamai van den Herik; Beau Greaves 6-2 Liam Maendl-Lawrance; Gian van Veen 6-2 Cam Crabtree; Sebastian Bialecki 6-5 Keane Barry<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Semi-Finals<\/strong>: Beau Greaves 6-5 Luke Littler; Gian van Veen 6-4 Sebastian Bialecki<em><br><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beau Greaves will take on reigning champion Gian van Veen in the World Youth Dart Championship final next<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-4585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-darts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WWMQF_Greaves3_compressed.jpg",2400,2105,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WWMQF_Greaves3_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WWMQF_Greaves3_compressed-300x263.jpg",300,263,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WWMQF_Greaves3_compressed-768x674.jpg",640,562,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WWMQF_Greaves3_compressed-1024x898.jpg",640,561,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WWMQF_Greaves3_compressed-1536x1347.jpg",1536,1347,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WWMQF_Greaves3_compressed-2048x1796.jpg",2048,1796,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WWMQF_Greaves3_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WWMQF_Greaves3_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"<a 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tag\">International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025WWMQF_Greaves3_compressed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4587,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4585\/revisions\/4587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}