Grand Prix Peter Wright Luke Humphries Jonny Clayton James Wade Rob Cross Nathan Aspinall Britain darts Sport Luke Littler Grand Prix Peter Wright Luke Humphries Jonny Clayton James Wade Rob Cross Nathan Aspinall Britain

Luke Littler suffers first-round European Championship defeat

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Luke Littler fell to another first-round TV tournament defeat as veteran Andrew Gilding produced an upset win at the European Championship in Dortmund.The 17-year-old Premier League champion crashed out of the World Matchplay and the World Grand Prix events at the first stage in recent months.Gilding made it an unwanted hat-trick for Littler – 36 years his junior – as the former UK Open champion triumphed 6-4 on the Westfalenhalle stage.Littler was out sorts in falling 3-0 behind on his European Championship debut, but the Warrington teenager showed his resilience to level at 4-4.But Littler missed double 18 for a 156 finish and Gilding stepped in to win what proved the penultimate leg before closing out the match.Littler could only record a match average of 95.39 with a checkout rate of 31%.Reigning champion Peter Wright was hammered 6-0 by Jermaine Wattimena, while world number one 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.

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Darts star Luke Littler has been eliminated from the European Championship in a shocking first-round upset, losing 6-4 to Andrew Gilding. Littler struggled to recover from a disastrous start, and his frustration was evident as he gestured towards someone in the crowd after missing an opportunity to level the score.

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