James Wade appeared to kiss former world champion Raymond van Barneveld during the pair’s meeting at the Belgian Darts Open on Saturday night. It comes just one week after Wade was caught on camera appearing to lick Luke Humphries at the UK Open in Minehead.
Wade had enjoyed a welcome return to form at the event in Somerset, beating the likes of Cameron Menzies, Josh Rock and world No.1 Humphries en route to the final. The Machine eventually met his match in the final against Luke Littler, who ran out a comfortable 11-2 winner.
But it was Wade’s actions against Humphries that captured the most attention, with the 41-year-old having caused another stir this weekend.
During an embrace with Van Barneveld at the European Tour event in Belgium, it looked as if Wade landed a slight peck on the cheek of his opponent. Van Barneveld appeared to take the stunt badly though, with the Dutchman seen wagging his finger in the direction of the referee.
In the match itself, it was Wade who came out on top, with the Englishman edging an entertaining 6-4 encounter. Wade raced out of the blocks to take a 3-0 lead and maintained his advantage throughout the game to progress into the last 16, where he’ll face Boris Krcmar this afternoon (Sunday).
Wade’s latest embrace with an opponent will do little to silence the critics who bashed the darts star following ‘Lickgate’ last week. Amongst them was ex-arrowsmith Paul Nicholson, who claimed in an interview with Sporting Life that Wade should be investigated because of his actions.
He said: “There had seemingly been tensions building throughout and they didn’t exchange the usual handshake or fist bump before the deciding leg, while Wade licking Humphries’ neck before the match began may have been an issue.
“I think sometimes as a competitor, you have to draw a line and say, ‘If you are going to play games and do things within a competitive environment that cross the line, then don’t expect respect in return.'”
He continued: “The photograph that surfaced of James sticking his tongue out and touched Luke’s neck was disgusting and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was investigated.
“Whether that was one of the things that bothered Luke or not, the fact he left the stage in the manner he did after the match wasn’t anything to do with being a ‘bad loser’. If James hadn’t done anything provocative, Luke’s reaction to defeat would have been very different.”
Humphries had spoken out against Wade in a social media post, but Cool Hand quickly deleted it from his page. It read: “Everyone loves to see people be a bad loser but I’m generally one of the best losers in the sport. I wasn’t going to give someone who didn’t deserve my respect after what he was doing through the game a hug and be all happy about it, that’s just my honesty.”
The action from Belgium continues throughout Sunday.
