On a rainy November night in Antwerp, James Wade finally let out a roar that had been bottled up for nearly a decade. The 43-year-old Englishman, known to fans as "The Machine," beat fellow countryman Ross Smith 8-4 to win the Flanders Darts Trophy — his first European Tour title since 2016.
The win ended a wait that stretched back to the European Darts Matchplay in Hamburg, ten long years ago. For a player who has reached the World Championship semi-finals four times, that gap felt like an eternity. "Some weeks it's good, sometimes it's bad. That's how it is for me," Wade said after collecting the £35,000 first prize. "If it was good all the time, I'd smash them all to bits. We can't always select how we feel."
The tournament had a bit of a twist this year. The current world top two, Luke Littler and Luke Humphries, weren't in Antwerp, which meant young Dutch star Gian van Veen came in as the top seed. Van Veen looked dangerous until Smith edged past him 7-6 in a nail-biting semi-final.
Wade, meanwhile, was on fire from the quarter-finals onward. He whitewashed Danny Noppert 6-0 — not dropping a single leg — and then took down Australia's Damon Heta 7-4 to book his place in the final.
In the title match, the stats told the story of a man in control. Wade averaged 95.50 and slammed in five maximum 180s — the biggest single score possible on a dartboard. He grabbed the early advantage after Smith missed double 64 on his own throw to go 3-2 up, then pushed his lead to 6-3 before sealing victory with a tidy checkout of 16.
The win is more than just another trophy. It's proof that patience and persistence can pay off at any age, and a reminder that athletes don't call it quits just because the calendar turns. Wade has spent years grinding through qualifying rounds and early exits while younger stars took the spotlight Rhs. But on this night in Belgium, the Machine clicked back into gear.
For Wade, the future is about taking it one throw at a time. European Tour titles might not come every season, but when they do, they taste just as sweet — maybe sweeter — after the wait. His fans in Antwerp and back home in England will hope this isn't the last continental crown in the cabinet.