Phil Taylor says the insults aimed at him during his career were sometimes so unfamiliar that he had to reach for a dictionary to work out what the crowd meant.
That is the message he wants Luke Littler to take with him, after a run of hostile nights has pushed the 19-year-old world No. 1 into threatening to walk away from entire countries on the Euro Tour.
“You’ve got to get used to it,” Taylor told dartsnews.com.
“I’ve had things shouted at me and I’ve had to look in the dictionary to see what they meant.”
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“It’s just sport and it’s gambling as well, a lot of people gamble.”
Booed through Amsterdam, Littler threatens to boycott
Littler was booed and whistled through the World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam in late September. Referee Charlie Corstorphine stopped his second-round match against Nathan Aspinall during the fifth set to issue a formal warning to the Afas Live crowd. Littler scraped through 10-9 before Jonny Clayton beat him 10-4 the following day.
Afterwards, the teenager said he was done with the Netherlands.
“If the Dutch stay like this, then I’m not going to do any Euro Tours over there,” Littler told reporters in Amsterdam on 20 September.
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He has since withdrawn from two Players Championship events in Den Bosch and cancelled his registration for the Dutch Darts Championship, which runs 16 to 18 October.
Taylor is coming back himself
Taylor, 66, is not watching this from the sidelines. He will return to competitive darts in November, teaming up with his old doubles partner Adrian Lewis at the MODUS Super Series International Pairs Tournament in Portsmouth. He had formally retired in May 2025 after laser eye surgery and a hip operation.
The practice sessions have not gone the way he wanted.
“I’m trying my best. I’m practicing, I’m doing everything properly. I just ain’t got it at the moment,” Taylor said.
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On the subject of hostile crowds, though, he sounds entirely sure of himself. Earlier this year, speaking about the kind of reception he faced during his own 16-world-title run, he described wanting to climb into the stands.
“I never cried but I felt like jumping over the barrier and smashing somebody’s face in a few times, of course you do,” Taylor said.
He has also urged Littler to limit his social media use rather than hit back online.
“He needs to get off social media put that phone down and just don’t keep posting things as a reaction,” Taylor said in April.
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‘Get used to it, or walk away’
Taylor’s bottom line is that there is no polite version of being the biggest name in darts.
“It is just something now that he has got to get used to,” he said. “He will either get used to it or he’ll walk away from it.”
Littler has held the world No. 1 ranking since winning the Grand Slam of Darts in November 2025, and Sky Sports reported in January that his lead over the field is large enough that he is guaranteed to stay there until at least October 2026 without hitting another board.
Taylor spent 3,343 days as world No. 1 across his career.
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The MODUS Super Series International Pairs runs from 23 to 28 November at the Hampshire Court Hotel in Portsmouth, with Taylor and Lewis in the field.
