European Championship Arrows: The wait for world number one Luke Littler continues after defeating James Wade

Luke Littler’s journey to becoming world number one continues after crashing out of the European Championship with a dramatic 10-7 second-round defeat at the hands of James Wade.

Meanwhile, Luke Humphries narrowly avoided a shock when he came from behind before winning the decider to defeat Cameron Menzies 10-9.

The winner of the tournament will be determined on Sunday, with the four quarter-final matches taking place in the afternoon before the semi-final and final in the evening.

Littler, 18, could have snatched the top spot in the Order of Merit from fellow Englishman Humphries at the tournament in Dortmund, and he certainly would have done so had he won the title.

But in a tough encounter in the round of 16, Wade led 2-0 before Littler reduced it to 3-2.

Wade led twice again to make it 6-4 but Littler answered back and tied the score at 6-6.

After another exchange of legs, it was Wade who moved forward, taking advantage of Littler’s failure to score a double 10 to make it 8-7, then finishing at 73 before finishing expertly at 108 to seal the victory.

Wade, who peaked at world number two in 2010 and has won 11 PDC Championships, told ITV he did not think Littler “played very well” compared to his usual level.

“I think I should have run away from him a little longer before I did that,” Wade said.

“I think everyone in darts knows I can play.”

While Littler and Wade both averaged 97.75 – and Littler managed eight 180s to Wade’s three – he had 11 scores of 100+ and had an exit rate of 45.45% to Littler’s 33.33% that proved the difference.

Littler has not performed well recently in Germany, missing some tournaments after facing a hostile reception from spectators.

He was booed alongside Humphreys when the pair lost to Germany at the World Cup of Darts in Frankfurt in June.

After the European Championship, there are two major tournaments before the World Championship starts on December 11 – the Grand Slam of Darts (November 8-16) and the Players Championship Finals (November 21-23).