Luke Littler and Luke Humphries crashed out of the World Cup of Darts after being thrashed by Germany in front of a partisan crowd in Frankfurt.
The pre-tournament favourites, who had both been awarded MBEs in the King’s Birthday Honours less than 24 hours before, were shellshocked as Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko cruised to an emphatic 8-4 victory.
The two Brits were notably below par in a hostile atmosphere and found themselves with a mountain to climb after sheepishly trailing 5-2 at the break.
Despite England threatening a brief resurgence when they reduced the deficit to 7-4, Pietreczko took out the decisive 62 finish with his last dart to send the crowd into raptures – and Littler and Humphries packing at only the first hurdle.
The 3,500 strong crowd at the Eissporthalle roared on every dart from the German pair and Schindler and Pietreczko were propelled to an early 2-0 lead.
Littler and Humphries briefly found their footing – and a taste of their usual scoring power – to pull themselves back on level terms, but after meekly surrendering the advantage in leg five, they were comfortably second best.
England entered the tournament in the second round as the top seeds and were roundly booed as they walked on to Fat Les’ viral hit Vindaloo.
But Littler and Humphries could only record a combined average of just over 93 and found the outer ring with just four of their 11 attempts at a double.
Visibly fuming after the winning dart, Littler quickly shook hands with his opponents before making his way off the stage without Humphries.
The resounding defeat came just a year after Humphries, the world No 1, had won the World Cup alongside Michael Smith – a record fifth victory for England.
Pre-match, Schindler insisted that Littler and Humphries were beatable and after Germany’s stunning upset, he revelled in backing up his prediction.
‘I was right,’ he told Sky Sports. ‘We believed in ourselves and I think we’ve been putting in a solid performance and obviously the double 16s from Ricardo when it mattered. We are very happy to go through.’
Littler has often been booed while playing in Germany and he even threatened to boycott tournaments in the country after losing at the German Darts Grand Prix.
The 18-year-old was knocked out in the semi-finals by Gian van Veen in Munich and took to social media to express his frustration.
Posting on Instagram, he wrote: ‘Shouldn’t have been in Munich but had to play anyway. Next one in Germany for me is Dortmund and I am glad to say that.’
Littler skipped the European Grand Prix and appears likely to also miss the upcoming Baltic Sea Open and multiple Players Championship events.
‘I had a little headloss moment, as some of us players do,’ he said after his loss to Van Veen. ‘I just don’t get it, and I can’t explain it. Obviously, you do your walk-on, but then as soon as I got on stage, I started getting booed.’
He added: ‘I got booed in Hildesheim last year against Peter Wright on the European Tour. I was flying and then they started booing me and I lost.’
‘Obviously, the Germans mustn’t like us English.’
