English duo eliminated from World Cup of Darts after shocking loss to Germany

A major upset occurred at the World Cup of Darts as top-seeded England’s Luke Littler and Luke Humphries were eliminated after losing to host nation Germany in their opening match.

The reigning world champion and world number one player — had to acknowledge defeat to Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko with a score of 8-4 in Frankfurt.

The English team, who recently received MBE honors from King Charles, struggled from the start — facing jeers from the home crowd as Germany captured the opening leg. Despite leveling at 2-2, issues on the outer ring allowed Germany to take a 7-5 lead.

“We believed in ourselves and put in a solid performance, the double 16s that Ricardo threw were so important,” said Schindler. “We’re delighted to go through. German darts is in good shape and we’ll continue to push forward.”