Peter Wright reels off six straight legs to stun Luke Littler and lift the German Darts
Championship; Littler loses with a 106.87 average and ten 180s; Darts is back on Sky Sports with the World Grand Prix at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester from
Peter Wright from the Cardiff Premier League event at the Cardiff International Arena on Thursday 9th February 202
Peter Wright is back on the winning trail once again with victory at the NEO.bet German Darts Championship
Peter Wright produced a stunning fightback to win six successive legs and beat Luke Littler 8-5 in the NEO.bet German Darts Championship final after roaring back to form in Hildesheim.
Wright thrilled a capacity crowd as he recovered from 5-2 adrift, his revival being sparked by a 146 finish in the eighth leg.
Humphries finishes with win as Cross qualifies for last 16 at Grand Slam of Darts
Paul Winters, Brad Ferguson,
Defending champion Luke Humphries (29) waves goodbye to the Grand Slam of Darts with a win after brushing past Mickey Mansell (51) in a dead rubber, while the likes of Danny Noppert (33), Rob Cross (34) and James Wade (41) all progressed to the last 16 of the tournament in Wolverhampton.
Catch up on all the action from day three of the Grand Slam of Darts ahead of the conclusion of the group stages on Tuesday.
Luke Humphries 5-1 Mickey Mansell
In the first match of the evening, Luke Humphries made short work of Mickey Mansell.
The Northern Irishman won his first two matches of the tournament with conviction but lost to the world champion. Mansell started the match well with a 180 but failed to finish 32.
Mansell kept his first leg of his own but then had to swallow finishes of 100, 74 and 76 from Humphries on his way to a 4-1 deficit.
‘Cool Hand Luke’ finished the job with an eleven-darter from 135 and recorded his first-ever win of the Grand Slam.
Despite this, the world champion flies out, and Mansell can prepare for a duel in the second round against Danny Noppert.
An unfit Dave Chisnall was no match for the already-qualified Ritchie Edhouse.
Thanks in part to a hefty 148 finish, Edhouse overwhelmingly won Chisnall, who again failed to reach an average of 90 and leaves the tournament with three defeats and just four legs to his name.
Chisnall started the match dramatically and got going bit by bit, but could not keep up with Edhouse and had three chances for a checkout, which he also grabbed in the fifth and sixth legs.
Edhouse finished the match in style with a 10-darter and heads to the last 16 in top form.
For the third time in her professional career, Beau Greaves won a match against a male opponent.
Greaves won after only six legs from Cameron Menzies with an average of 95.17 and fine efficiency on the doubles: 62.5 per cent of the checkouts were hit for Greaves.
Danny Noppert qualified for the last 16 unbeaten, winning in seven legs against Martin Schindler, who forfeited his spot in the next round with some costly misses.
‘The Freeze’ started the match stormily with an 11-darter and faced an equally good Schindler in the opening stages: after four legs, the men were on averages of no less than 107 and 111.
The two stayed close together and Schindler threw calm and controlled despite the big stakes.
Nevertheless, the German missed three important darts in the fifth leg, which Noppert took advantage of with a 100 finish.
HEARTBREAK FOR SCHINDLER!
Incredible drama in Group B!
Martin Schindler is unable to claim the three legs he needed to progress, and Danny Noppert wraps up a 5-2 victory which also sends Cameron Menzies through to the last 16!
Things also went wrong in the following leg for Schindler, who appeared to have broken his own spirit with the misses on 47 in leg 5. With a spot in the eighth finals looming, Schindler, who held a narrow lead over Cameron Menzies, had to pull out all the stops to stay in the Grand Slam.
However, Noppert kept him alive with two misses on double 6, but the German missed on tops and double 10. Noppert took the next chance with both hands: the Fries remained unbeaten and sends Martin Schindler home.
James Wade 5-1 Rowby-John Rodriguez
In a match with four broken legs, it was James Wade who came out on top. Against Austrian Rowby-John Rodriguez, Wade won his second match of the Grand Slam 5-1.
The Englishman immediately benefited from missed darts by Rodriguez, who was able to throw out from 47 and grab an immediate break.
The return was disappointing for the Austrians, who had two suffered two legs on the spin.
Rodriguez did break Wade in the third from 48, but Rowby-John could not make up the difference after that, with Wade winning the last three legs in a row, qualifying as group winner for the last 16.
Lukeman started his match rock-solid with a 123 finish and then broke the American from 52.
Gates briefly fought back and broke the Englishman back with a sensational leg with seven perfect darts, but eventually could not keep up the level well enough and was broken in the last leg from 83.
In his final match of the tournament, ‘Snakebite’ was beaten by Rob Cross by a whopping 5-1.
With a finishing percentage as high as 83 per cent, Cross was more than accurate on the doubles and managed to surpass his Scottish opponent on average (91.21 at 83.55), highest checkout (73 at 46) and 100+ throws (11 at 8).
Wright managed to keep up with Cross reasonably well in the first legs, but lost control of all facets of the match from his own fourth leg onwards.
With Cross on 190, Wright threw his way from 209 to 69, but the Scot failed to throw it out and Cross broke him from 50.
Things went downhill from there for the striking Scot, who leaves the tournament with just six legs to his name.
Cross will face Ritchie Edhouse in the next round.
Ross Smith 5-0 Connor Scutt
Ross Smith rounded off the penultimate day of the group stage with a whitewash over Connor Scutt. Scutt, who started the day second in Group D, gave up hugely on the doubles and failed to complete any of his seven checkouts.
Smith threw out from 84 after a late 180 and then broke the world number 83 when Scutt failed to throw out from both 76 and 10.
Even with a stuttering Smith in the third leg – when the world number 22 failed to throw out 43 – Scutt still could not win a leg.
Scutt’s malaise continued in the fourth leg, which Smith picked off, and was finished off by ‘Smudger’ with an 11-darter and an unmitigated whitewash.