The next top darts player? Lucas, 5, Tweeted by darts champions Michael Van Gerwan and 'Snakebite' Peter Wright

Louth youngster Lucas Maidment is just five years old, but has been a fan of darts since he was just two years old after watching his dad Tom play at home.

"He was just tapping the darts into the dartboard then before you know it, he was throwing properly,” Tom said, “So we decided to make a TikTok up for him and he’s getting 100,00 views on a regular basis now called littlelucas180.”

Lucas’s achievements with darts has led to him beign recognised on Twitter by five-times world champion Michael Van Gerwen:

“We put a video on Lucas’ Twitter account, and he [Van Gerwen] replied saying that he recognised the dartboard surround and the card he had of him above his dartboard,” Tom explained.

Van Gerwen replied to the post on Twitter jokingly stating that Lucas was wearing the wrong shirt, but if Lucas could reach 1,000 followers with Twitter’s help, he would send him one of his signed shirt – which he duly did.

The post also sparked some banter with fellow darts superstar Snakebite Peter Wright, with the latter replying to Van Gerwen: “I do believe Lucas has The Wright shirt on.”

Tom said Lucas was “really happy” when he saw that the big names saw his videos online:

"He always says he wants to be a player when he grows up and say he wants to be a future world champion.”

He is well on his way, as Lucas has just hit his first 180!

You can follow Lucas’s progress on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LittleLucas180