Stephen Bunting punches back at critics of his Luke Littler fist bumps

Stephen Bunting has hit back at critcism of fist-bumps with Luke Littler as the kid brings royalty and revenue to darts.

And The Bullet also feels Michael van Gerwen will return to action with scars after losing the World Final to The Nuke.

Bunting was hammered 6-1 in the semi-finals at Ally Pally as Littler surged to the World title.

However, the Scouser displayed a friendly in-match attitude with his mate despite the torching.

That brought Bunting some stick, but, ahead of tonight’s Dutch Darts Masters, he retorted: “It does annoy me a bit that people pick up upon that sort of thing, that shows how well I’m playing, that they have got to pick up on a fist bump rather than a bad performance.

“Luke is a lad who has the world at his feet and he is still learning the game. I’m very respectful for what he is doing for our game. I hope he continues for a lot of years because he is bringing in a lot more money to our sport.

“So yeah I am pretty respectful and thankful that he is doing that. On another side, I know him personally, I have grown up in the same area as him, known him for a lot of years since he was a little kid.

“I played Luke Humphries in Bahrain, there were a few games there, a few shots where we fist bumped. It is not all the time.

“We are all friends on the Tour. I played a game against Gerwyn Price in the final of the Bahrain Masters. He was giving it a bit large on the stage and I did get a bit large myself, a bit loud and was giving it back to him. I don’t think he liked it.

“If I need to do it, then it is there in the armoury and I can do it. I won’t feel threatened on any stage that I play anymore. I have always been brought up to be respectful, to be nice and that what I would be like off the oche, not