England’s Luke Humphries and Luke Littler are out of the World Cup of Darts after suffering a shock defeat by hosts Germany in the last 16.
The German pair of Martin Schindler and tournament debutant Ricardo Pietreczko took advantage of a string of missed doubles and some sloppy play by the top two players in the world to win 8-4 in Frankfurt.
Humphries and Littler, who both became MBEs on Saturday in the King’s Birthday Honours, were aiming to lead England to a record-extending sixth World Cup crown – with Humphries partnering Michael Smith to victory last year.
But playing together for the first time, the tournament favourites looked far from comfortable from the start as Germany broke throw in the opening leg, cheered on by a vocal home crowd.
They recovered to level the match at 2-2 but it was Germany who rose to the occasion with some brilliant play, winning the next five legs to leave them on the brink of a famous victory.
England pulled a couple of legs back to give them hope but Pietreczko, nicknamed Pikachu, sealed a 62 checkout in the 12th leg to secure the win.
