James Wade’s quest to find top form is gathering pace.

The Unicorn man is desperate to put a disappointing 2017 behind him and has been working very hard to find that golden touch.

Wade reached the semi-finals of the European Darts Open in Leverkusen - the first Euro Tour event of the year.

He was beaten 7-4 by Peter Wright, who then lost a thrilling final to Michael van Gerwen. Wright led 5-1 and 7-5 but Van Gerwen came back to win 8-7 in dramatic fashion.

Wade won a superb all Unicorn clash with Michael Smith in the last 16. Both players averaged around 106 but Wade prevailed 6-4. He then took care of Mervyn King 6-4 in the last eight.

In the semi-finals Wade came from 2-6 down to reduce the deficit to two legs but Wright’s finishing was superb, as he hit seven doubles from eight attempts.

Elsewhere in Leverkusen on Sunday, Joe Cullen had a good run through to the quarter-finals before losing 6-3 to Wright. Cullen had earlier won an all Unicorn 3rd Round game with a last leg victory over Chris Dobey.

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But there was success for Team Unicorn at the latest weekend on the PDC Unicorn Challenge Tour.

20-year-old Ted Evetts played superbly to win Challenge Tour 8 on Sunday night in Milton Keynes.

Evetts won EIGHT matches to claim the prized title, beating Poland’s Krzysztof Ratajski 5-1 in the final.

Another Unicorn youngster Harry Ward reached the final of Challenge Tour 7 but lost 5-2 against Dennis Nilsson.

The other PDC Unicorn Challenge Tour winners on Saturday were Welshman John Davy and the experienced Michael Barnard.

By STUART PYKE

Images courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC

Posted in Unicorn Darts