World number one Luke Littler stunned fans with an act of generous sportsmanship earlier this year after a leading rival pinned a brilliant nine-dart finish. The 18-year-old darts sensation was playing Gerwyn Price on night 10 of this year's Premier League in Manchester when the Welsh ace nailed a perfect leg with a magnificent 141 checkout, sending the capacity crowd wild.

Instead of showing frustration or disappointment at losing the leg, the reigning world champion responded with pure class.

After hitting double 12, the Iceman turned around to face the crowd and was immediately congratulated by Littler who appeared to join in on the celebrations. The teenager smiled and applauded before the pair high-fived each other and shared a laugh on stage in a rare show of unity between two of the sport's most talked-about figures.

The nine-dart finish was the fourth of five perfect legs struck during the 17-week-long tournament, which sees eight of the world's top players face off every Thursday at different venues across the UK and Europe. Price would go on to strike perfection once more on night 15 in Aberdeen before being knocked out in the play-off semi-finals by Littler.

The Nuke's gracious response may have had something to do with the scoreline at the time, with Littler 5-1 up in a first-to-six leg match when Price produced the nine-darter.

Littler would go on to win the match 6-3 with a healthy 103.93 average before losing his next match to arch-rival Luke Humphries.

The pair have since endured very different starts to their respective PDC World Championship bids. Littler is yet to drop a set with two 3-0 victories over Darius Labinauskas and David Davies handing the Warrington-born star a ticket into the third round.

But Price was victim of one of the shocks of the tournament so far on Sunday night after suffering a whitewash defeat of his own to world No.92 Wesley Plaisier - despite posting a higher average than his opponent.

The divisive former professional rugby player received an uncharacteristically warm reception from the Ally Pally crowd for the second round clash but was unable to capitalise.

The Welshman threw more 180s but his Dutch rival proved ruthless on the doubles, hitting over 56 per cent of his checkout attempts including a 130 finish on the bullseye.

After the match, Price took to Instagram to sportingly praise his opponent and wish him luck for the rest of the tournament.

He wrote: "Absolutely gutted there, had so much support which was amazing. Wesley was great at the right moments but I was way off and it showed, good luck to him and everyone else left in the tournament see you in 2026. Merry Christmas and a happy new year."