James Wade dedicated his surprise victory over Luke Littler to his seven-year-old son in an emotional message. Littler had the opportunity to surpass Luke Humphries as the world’s top-ranked player by reaching the final of the European Championship. However, his hopes went up in smoke when he slipped to a 10-7 defeat to Wade in the second round.
Wade could have secured victory by a wider margin, with his teenage rival unable to find his best form. Afterwards, the 42-year-old spoke emotionally about his young son, who is currently going through a difficult period. In a heartfelt interview, he said that he was trying to prove to his son that anything is possible.
“Yeah, you know, it was tricky,” began Wade. “It probably wasn’t quite what it should have been. I think we should have won by quite a margin, but you know, it is what it is.
“Yeah, I mean, I let him in a multitude of times. So, you know, I’m just happy to win. It’s a great thing for someone like my son that’s struggling at the moment. So, Arthur, we can do it.
“I mean, I should have beaten him at the World Matchplay. It was 14-all, I missed three darts at a double. I register those things.
“People like yourselves might not do, or you might do, but I do things like this now just to say to my son, who’s seven years old, that we all have our little differences, but we can do it.
“And I told you, Arthur, we can do it. Me and you, mate, we’ll do it. We’ll take on everyone.”
Wade revealed that his son has been ‘struggling like mad’ after being diagnosed with ‘a lot of problems’, but did not go into detail about the nature of those issues.
“I’ve been here for 25 years but as I go back to it all, you know, my son’s struggling like mad with things,” said Wade, who has been open about his own diagnosis with bipolar disorder.
“And as I say [to] Arthur, Daddy does it and you can do it. It’s really, really easy. We’ll just keep doing what we do, because there are ways and ways of winners at times.
“My seven-year-old son will watch this, and it’s really magical, and it’s really important to me. I’m not coming here all hyped up. I’m relaxed, I’m calm and I’m cool. My son will do good things, you know. I told you, Arthur, we could do it.
“I’m not really proud, you know, I’m just doing my job. As I say, I’ve got a son that’s struggling a hell of a lot, but we’re doing all right. We’re doing just fine. It’s not about money, it’s not about rewards.
“I’ve done the money course, and I’ve done the rewards course. At the moment, it’s about proving to my son that people who are quirky, we can do this stuff.
“It sounds like a bit of silliness or nonsense, but I need to prove to my son that I can do it, because he said he can do better and my son will do it.”
