LUKE ‘The Nuke’ Littler fluffed his lines as he gave up a handsome lead to bow out of the New Zealand Darts Masters in the semi-finals.

The Warrington 17-year-old was leading 6-2 against Luke Humphries but paid the price for twice failing to hit the mark with match darts as the world champion claimed five legs on the bounce to win 7-6 in Hamilton.

Littler, who had impressively seen off Dimitri Van den Bergh in the quarter-finals earlier today, missed double 20 for a 107 checkout in leg nine as Humphries broke his throw to win his first leg in five.

After ‘Cool Hand’ held his throw to cut the arrears to 6-4, Littler hit the outer ring instead of the bull as another match dart went astray allowing his opponent to win in 15 darts.

The margins could not be tighter, but the world champion was now on a roll and held his throw in 13 arrows to take the contest into a deciding leg – with ‘The Nuke’ having first throw.

But when the former Padgate Academy student only scored 111 with his first six arrows and then Humphries produced a 180 he took control and with ‘The Nuke’ down to a 32 finish on his next visit ‘Cool Hand’ held his nerve to take out treble 20 and double eight in two darts to complete a stunning comeback win.

Humphries went on to defeat Australian Damon Heta in the final 8-2 to clinch his maiden World of Darts Series title.

Earlier in the day, Littler took immediate control of his quarter-final clash against Van den Bergh, breaking the 30-year-old in the first leg as he signalled his favour for double 20 checkouts.

Both players won legs in 11 darts as the match stayed with throw until 4-3 when the Belgian made the most of his 110-average purple patch to break the teenager in the eighth leg.

But Littler, who had defeated Van den Bergh 7-6 in an Australian Darts Masters epic semi-final seven days earlier, responded immediately, winning against the throw in 14 darts for 5-4 and then wrapped up the contest with his second 11-darter.

Littler’s success on the doubles for his checkouts was impressive at 86 per cent, while he averaged 103 and recorded a highest finish of 97.