Littler stunned but Humphries cruises through

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.

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.

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