16 hours ago
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Luke Littler and Luke Humphries were left reeling as England’s hopes of retaining the World Cup of Darts were torn apart by Germany. The world’s top two players slipped to an 8-4 second round defeat at the Eissporthalle in Frankfurt, where Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko made the most of the backing of a partisan home crowd to seal a comprehensive victory.
Littler and Humphries, who both received MBEs in King Charles’s birthday honours, were made to pay for missed doubles, with the 18-year-old in particular turning in an off-colour display in a country where he has endured previous disappointments.
A delighted Schindler, who had insisted in advance that the English duo were “beatable”, told Sky Sports: “I was right because we believed in ourselves. We have been putting in a solid performance, and obviously the double 16s from Ricardo just went in, so we are very happy to go through. Today was one step and tomorrow is the other. That’s it.”
Booed by the home crowd, Littler started nervously and the Germans took the first two legs, but his 123 check-out put England on the board before a 64 finish levelled it up at 2-2.
However, the teenager missed three darts at a double in the fifth leg to allow Pietreczko to win it with a 106 out-shot, and another in the sixth as the Germans restored their advantage. And after Humphries had hit 25 rather than bull going for 122, they went in at the break 5-2 ahead.
Pietreczko took out 101 after the resumption before Germany went 7-2 up and although Littler and Humphries took the next two, they eventually succumbed as a return of just four doubles from the 11 chances they created ultimately proved costly.
Germany’s reward is a quarter-final against Australia, who routed Argentina 8-1 with Damon Heta and Simon Whitlock proving too strong for Jesus Salate and Victor Guillin despite missing 21 of their 29 attempts at doubles.
Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton secured Wales’ passage with a resounding 8-2 win over the Philippines. The Welsh pair, who claimed the crown in 2020 and 2023, powered their way through to a last-eight tie against Hong Kong with the minimum of fuss despite the first three legs going against the darts.
However, Scotland’s Peter Wright and Gary Anderson found themselves on the wrong end of a demolition job as they went down 8-0 to the Netherlands in just 15 minutes. Danny Noppert and the world youth champion, Gian van Veen, who took out 130 to claim the fourth leg on Scotland’s throw, were in inspired form, averaging 100.2 and converting eight of the 12 darts they had at doubles to breeze through to a meeting with the Czech Republic.
William O’Connor and Keane Barry eased the Republic of Ireland to a showdown against neighbouring Northern Ireland with an 8-3 victory over Switzerland in which they were always in control.
Northern Ireland were comfortable winners over South Africa as Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney eased them to an 8-2 success. Elsewhere, there were wins for the Czechs over Malaysia and Hong Kong against Sweden.
