Meet the 16-year-old who is organising events to share his passion for the sport
A TEENAGER inspired by Luke Littler has helped bring a darts tournament for young people to a Llandaff North pub.
The Railway pub will be hosting a free youth tournament on Sundays, for children aged 12 to 17.
Organiser Ben Wells, 16, believes this type of darts tournament is missing in Cardiff and hopes they will create a sense of community and belonging.
“It’s an individual sport, but I feel like it can give something to a young person. An opportunity to just have a laugh with a few other people their age, throw some darts, take their mind off things that could be bothering them,” he said.
“The community feeling if there are regulars constantly playing each other every week is great,” added Ben, who runs his own company, Cardiff Darts Shop.
“I’ve become completely obsessed with darts. I’ve got a board, and from the moment I started playing I’ve been watching every single tournament.”
The Railway’s business partner, Christopher Williams, and landlady Rosie Sullivan believe there are not enough activities for young people.
“What is there for kids to do?” said Rosie. “We are trying to create a space for them to go to. It’s lovely for parents to know they’ve got somewhere safe for their kids to go.”
Christopher said he started watching darts because of Luke Littler.
“The craze around him has reinvented darts. Youngsters cling onto heroes and Luke is amazing for all the 12 to 17-year-old age group, which is a market that needs helping,” he said.
In 2024, the BBC reported that the number of youngsters playing darts has doubled since Luke Littler’s success.
“Why not jump on the opportunity of the sudden craze of darts, and actually give youngsters something to do, something to be interested in?” said Christopher.
“It’s a stereotyped sport — middle-aged men throwing darts and drinking lots of beer. That stereotype is not true. Luke has kind of smashed all those stereotypes out the window,” said Christopher.
The pub hopes to expand the tournament by contacting local youth clubs once the they are up and running.
Railway regular Kevin Prance thinks the darts tournament will help young people develop skills such as mathematics and problem solving.
“It gets young people off the streets. I think it will be a good thing,” said Kevin.
The pub’s skittle alley is being converted to house up to 10 dartboards and tournaments will be closely supervised.
“It is in a completely separate room. It will be highly governed for underage. Parents are more than welcome to come and join in,” said Christopher.
“Everybody seems to know everybody’s children here, which is lovely,” said Rosie. “Parents would just love for their kids to be off their PlayStations, to get out and go somewhere, to mingle.”
“Back in the day, pubs used to be a place everybody went to, and it wasn’t all about drinking. People would just talk to each other and make friends. People that were lonely would go to the pub and meet up with people. I think that’s been lost,” said Christopher.
The Railway will also be running other darts tournaments. On Mondays, 18 to 65-year-olds will be invited to play a round robin tournament. Tournaments on Saturdays will be open to all adults with players contributing to a small prize pot.
On Wednesdays the Railway will be linking up with the UK national tournament Amateur Darts Circuit.
“If you can make a business whilst helping others, surely that’s the best business model you’ll ever have,” said Christopher.
- The tournaments are set to launch at the start of March, and will be advertised via the pub’s social network.
