Littler stunned but Humphries cruises through

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, Luke Littler's defeat was his third consecutive first round exit in a ranked TV major

Teenager Luke Littler suffered a surprise defeat in the European Championship first round, losing 6-4 to Andrew Gilding in Dortmund.

Gilding showed a clinical edge and raced into a 3-0 lead against his English compatriot, the run including a 12-darter in the second leg but was pegged back as Littler responded with three straight legs of his own.

Gilding then regained momentum with an 11-darter and, despite Littler then levelling once more, saw out the next two legs to win and set up a meeting with home favourite Ricardo Pietreczko in the second round on Saturday.

"It鈥檚 the last thing I expected really, especially with the way Luke has played lately," said Gilding, who lost to Littler during the 17-year-old's run to the World Championship final.

"It鈥檚 the third time I鈥檝e played Luke, and tonight it was a case of third time lucky.

"This is a huge win for me. I was thinking about my flight home tomorrow to be honest, but maybe that helped me to relax."

In contrast to Littler, world champion Luke Humphries cruised through with a comfortable 6-2 win over Nathan Aspinall.

Humphries threw seven 180s and finished with a 46% checkout rate in a dominant display.

He will now face Welshman Jonny Clayton, who beat Chris Dobey 6-4 to advance.

However, Scottish defending champion Peter Wright will be absent from the latter stages, he finished with a disappointing average of below 75 as his bid to win a third European Championship title ended with a 6-0 loss to Jermaine Wattimena.

Dutchman Wattimena will face England's James Wade in the next stage.

Friday's first-round results

Danny Noppert 6-2 Joe Cullen

Chris Dobey 4-6 Jonny Clayton

Rob Cross 3-6 James Wade

Ricardo Pietreczko 6-5 Damon Heta

Peter Wright 0-6 Jermaine Wattimena

Luke Littler 4-6 Andrew Gilding

Luke Humphries 6-2 Nathan Aspinall

Josh Rock 1-6 Mike de Decker