LUKE 'The Nuke' Littler knew he had a tough draw when being paired with Premier League rival Rob Cross in the first round of the darts World Grand Prix.

The 17-year-old's record against Voltage is a good one, but it counted for nothing in Leicester as the favourite was knocked out by the fourth seed.

Littler, who grew up in Runcorn, was inconsistent with his scoring and beaten 2-1 in sets on his World Grand Prix debut and now he can only sit back and watch the rest of the week unfold.

'The Nuke' will rue the missed double 20 that would have given him the first set, but Cross needed no second invitation as he landed his favourite double 18 to go 1-0 in front.

Each game went to throw in the second set, with both winning legs on 88 checkouts before Littler ran out the 3-2 winner.

And 88 was the magic number for Cross as that was his checkout score in the fourth leg of the final set, breaking Littler to win only his third game in eight appearances at the World Grand Prix.

The match finished with Littler having the slightly better average at 94.03 and threw six 180s compared to Cross' two.

But Voltage threw more ton-plus scores on a more regular basis and then was clinical with his finishes as he achieved 80 per cent success on the doubles compared to Littler's 37.5.