A 15-year-old girl from Northamptonshire will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Luke Littler after qualifying for a major junior darts competition. Lexi-Jayne Rooksby, who hails from Rushden, has already played against grown men and looks to have a bright future after excelling beyond her age group.
Rooksby only took up darts in 2022 as a favour to her father, who was desperate for players to make up the numbers on his pub team. Two years later, she is among the country’s best young prospects and will compete at the JDC World Youth Championship in November.
“I am [pleased to qualify], I didn’t think I was going to get as far as I did,” she told the BBC. “I hope I do well, but there’s going to be good people there. I’ll try my best.”
The teenager has already played at county level and has come up against professionals such as Ricky Evans and father-and-son duo James and Josh Richardson. Rooksby went on to admit that she ‘doesn’t practise much’ and never plays darts at home, making her rapid rise even more impressive.
Her father, Mick Rooksby, added: “When she first started playing, there was no inkling to what she was going to be like so when she qualified there were a few tears. To only do [minimum practice] and be as good as she is, you don’t really hear those kinds of stories.”
Rooskby’s habit of not practising much bears similarities to Littler, who has previously admitted that he trains for less than one hour each day.
“I usually do 30 minutes to an hour a day,” he said last year. “Some people probably won’t believe it. Not even an hour, just half an hour [or] 45 minutes a day because I’m just practising on my own. It gets boring.”
While a lack of regular practice has not stopped Rooksby and Littler from being successful, it remains to be seen if they will change their approach to training in future. World champion Luke Humphries recently warned about the dangers of not practising, saying: “You have to be careful in this game to put in enough effort.
“If you feel like you have got to the point in your game where you are great and you are not practising, it will come back to bite you. I know players who have done that. Michael Smith has openly admitted he didn’t practice all last year, then all of a sudden he lost his form. I feel like that is a massive point in your game you have to focus on.”
