Luke Littler: Teenager suffers shock exit to Andrew Gilding at European Championship
Luke Littler suffers shock first-round exit at European Championship; watch the Grand Slam of
Darts in Wolverhampton as world No 1 Humphries looks to defend his title from November ,
Luke Littler.PDC World Series of Darts – New Zealand Darts Masters at Globox Arena,.
Luke Littler suffered a shock exit at the hands of Andrew Gilding at the European Championship
Luke Littler suffered a surprise exit to Andrew Gilding in one of the shocks of the year at the Machineseeker European Championship in Dortmund on Friday.
Littler, 17, was making his European Championship debut, but Gilding dumped out the Premier League champion 6-4 with a 98.92 average, three maximums and 35 per cent checkout success.
Defeat for an out-of-sorts Littler was his third consecutive first-round exit in a ranked TV major.
Luke Littler won the Premier League in his debut campaign after defeating Luke Humphries 11-7 in the final
“It’s the last thing I expected really, especially with the way Luke has played lately,” conceded the former UK Open champion.
“It’s the third time I’ve played Luke, and tonight it was a case of third time lucky!
“This is a huge win for me. I was thinking about my flight home tomorrow to be honest, but maybe that helped me to relax!”
Gilding surged into a 3-0 lead, winning the opening leg with a neat 76 checkout before completing a 12-darter and then taking out a quality 79 finish.
Littler got on the board in the fourth leg and after ‘Goldfinger’ missed two darts to extend his lead, the Warrington ace punished his opponent to close the gap with a two-dart combination finish on 72.
‘The Nuke’ looked visibly frustrated after spaying a few loose darts, but he stayed focused to sink double 10 and make it 3-3 in a dramatic encounter.
Suffolk star Gilding edged ahead with a brilliant 11-darter and after missing the bullseye for a 5-3 lead, Littler rescued the leg with a neat 64 checkout on double top.
Gilding moved one away from a massive upset as Littler failed to land double 18 for a big 156 finish.
And the 53-year-old soon completed a remarkable victory by cleaning up 47 to reach the second round where he will play home favourite Ricardo Pietreczko.
As well as the remaining three PDC ProTour events, Littler will return to action at the Grand Slam of Darts live on Sky Sports before he takes part in the Players Championship Finals in Minehead.
He will then look to go one better than he did in January by winning the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace from December 15 until January 3.
Reigning champion Peter Wright was hammered 6-0 by Jermaine Wattimena, while world No 1 Luke Humphries showed his class in overcoming Nathan Aspinall 6-2.
Humphries produced a stunning 106.49 average in hitting seven 180s.
James Wade won the battle of two former European champions with a 6-3 victory over Rob Cross.
Jonny Clayton defeated Chris Dobey 6-4 and Danny Noppert saw off Joe Cullen 6-2.
Newly-crowned World Grand Prix champion Mike De Decker cruised past sixth seed Josh Rock 6-1.
Ricardo Pietreczko edged Damon Heta 6-5 to book a last-16 date with Gilding.
Luke Humphries claimed his maiden Grand Slam of Darts title last year
Live darts returns to Sky Sports with the Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton from November 9-17 as Luke Humphries looks to defend his title with Littler and Beau Greaves also in action.
Humphries nailed this 91 finish to defeat Rob Cross 16-8 and win his first Grand Slam of Darts title
