The Luke Littler show rolls into Dublin town

The signs went up a few months ago. No room at the inn, walk on, walk-ins.

Or more precisely, a new darts academy in Cabra, Dublin 7, only set up last September, has stopped taking new members.

The Luke Littler effect, 15 months since he burst onto the scene, shows no signs of slowing down.

"We've 56 registered in the academy, we’ve a waiting list of 30," says club director Liam Bolger.

"We were going to start a Youth Club and the manager of Finbarr's GAA said, 'what do you think of a darts academy?'

"So, we went with that, we thought we'd get a few at the start and we got 30, 40 then 50, all the kids are mad into it.

"At the moment it’s going great, and they all love it."

The D7 club is affiliated with the Junior Darts Corporation, which has over 90 partner academies, mostly in Britain and Ireland, while there are a number of independent junior clubs.

At this age, it's about the kids taking part and having fun, but that's not to say there isn't an up and coming Littler among them.

"There are players coming through and they're amazing, they are as good as the adults and they are 12 or 13," adds Bolger.

"We've three or four who only started playing darts in September and you can see they are going to be great."

Littler is in Dublin ahead of tonight’s Premier League action at the 3Arena in Dublin and was a surprise visitor on Wednesday to the club which is based in the Naomh Fíonnbarra GAA club.

"It’s crazy, obviously they were very happy to see me," Littler told RTÉ Sport after being mobbed by the youngsters upon arrival.

"It’s so good to see so many academies starting up, not only in England but over here in Ireland.

"I wouldn’t say it’s [my] responsibility; it’s a case that I’ve done really well, and the younger generation are