James Wade brings early end to Nathan Aspinall’s title defence

Defending champion Nathan Aspinall was dumped out of the World Darts Matchplay after losing 11-8 to James Wade in Blackpool.

Aspinall has been struggling with a right arm injury and got off to the worst possible start before a spirited fightback brought him back into the contest against The Machine – but Wade’s experience got him over the line to book his spot in the quarter-final.

Wade, the 2007 Matchplay champion, started well and raced into a 4-0 lead but Aspinall eventually found his rhythm and hit three 180s to go into the second break level at 5-5.

Both players then held throw three times but Wade upped the ante while Aspinall went cold on the scoring shots once again.

It took Wade 40 minutes and 19 legs to hit his first 180 and it was a crucial one against the throw to put him on the verge of victory before he took out double 18 to round off an 11-8 win.

World number one Luke Humphries averaged 102.34 in his 11-7 victory over Stephen Bunting.

Bunting produced the first break of throw in the seventh leg with a magnificent 126 finish but Humphries broke straight back in the next to make sure things were still neck and neck.

History repeated itself in the 11th leg when Bunting broke throw but then missed three darts at double eight to let Humphries come back in and level things up at 6-6.

Cool Hand was not at his clinical best but won five of the next six legs to book his spot in the next round.

He told Sky Sports : “It was a fantastic game of darts, that was.

“I didn’t have it my own way, couple of missed shots from me and a couple missed from Stephen. I feel blessed to be through and the doubles were the difference in the end.”

Ross Smith edged out Gerwyn Price 11-9 in the first match of the night.

Both players were well up for the contest with big celebrations in the end of legs won and Price looked comfortable early on with an early break of throw to go 2-0 up but Smith won three on the spin to go ahead at the first break.

The pendulum swung in favour of each player but Smith’s scoring power soon got the better of the Iceman as he hit 13 180s and took out double 20 to see off the Welshman and book a place in the last eight.

Dimitri van den Bergh set up a quarter-final clash with Humphries after a convincing 11-5 win over Jonny Clayton.

Van den Bergh hit a nine-darter in his opening round victory but had to battle hard against Clayton, who hit four early 180s.

With the score at 6-4 heading into the second break, the Belgian came out firing and won five of the next six legs to earn a comfortable victory over last year’s finalist.