James Wade hasn’t had the easiest of times over the past 12 months.
The left-hander has dropped out of the top 20 in the Order of Merit for the first time in a long time, and it’s now three years since his last TV title.
However, as we all know, we should never write The Machine off, and, by the sounds of it, his game is improving.
Indeed, writing for the Daily Star, Wade has noted how he feels like his game is getting back to the right sort of level, but, over the weekend on the European Tour, he admits he was outclassed by Martin Schindler.
The German averaged over 111 in a 6-5 win against Wade, and the former UK Open Champion was full of praise for The Wall after their encounter at the weekend.
James Wade praises Martin Schindler
Wade spoke about his match against Schindler and how he couldn’t deal with the German.
“This past weekend at the European Tour event in Graz, Austria, it actually was the case for me. Fair play to Martin Schindler. In our match, not only did he record his personal record average of 111.5, he also created a record for all German players, while most of his legs were completed in 13 darts or less.
“That is some going, particularly when I played well and hit 100% of my doubles. I left 61 to make it 5-5 and he did not give me a shot at that.”
Martin Schindler could be a future major winner
There’s no shame to losing against a player like Schindler when he’s playing to that sort of level.
The German has improved massively over the past two years, and we wouldn’t be surprised at all if he’s a future major winner.
Of course, all of the attention at the moment is on Luke Littler as a young dartist with a big future, but at the age of just 27, Schindler shouldn’t be forgotten when we’re discussing players who could win big tournaments in the future.
You have to be a special player to impress James Wade, and Schindler did just that this weekend.