Machine beats the boos to march on

JAMES WADE produced a stunning fightback to turn the Ally Pally boos to cheers but admitted: “I nearly walked off.”

Stung by a hostile crowd, Wade had to pull out all the stops from

3-1 down to reach the last-16 at the William Hill PDC World Darts Championship with a dramatic 4-3 win over Keegan Brown.

‘The Machine’ was booed mercilessly when he took to the stage after his aggressive celebrations against Seigo Asada last Wednesday night.

But after exacting revenge on Brown, the ex-hospital laboratory technician who knocked him out

12 months ago, Wade stayed behind to milk the audience like a dairy maid.

And after sinking to one knee to ask the front-row hecklers for forgiveness, the No.9 seed left the arena to a standing ovation.

Hours after being accused of bullying Asada, and saying he wanted to “hurt” the Japanese ‘Ninja’, Wade issued an apology.

He blamed his behaviour on a hypomanic episode related to his battle with mental health demons.

Wade said: “I was the one who didn’t sleep until 5.30 the next day, but when you are in a euphoric state and spinning out of control, you don’t know what you’ve done.

“It’s only when you are back in your room, and you’re very lonely, that it hits home.

“I’m not trying to justify it because I made a big mistake and I don’t expect people to forgive me. But today I was battling what was going on behind me (in the crowd) more than what was in front of me.

“At one point I was close to walking off because I couldn’t handle it, and I felt I was being judged on something that isn’t me or the person I am. But the crowd obviously felt I had something to answer for.

“At the end, I was simply saying ‘sorry’ and ‘thank you’ to the crowd. I took my punishment, but right now I am probably the happiest man in darts.

“I was never down and out, I was only battling myself.”

Three-time semi-finalist Wade, 35, had to draw on all his knowhow, with three 100-plus checkouts, to turn the tide against Brown.

In the end, his 94.71 average was a decent return after he spent three of the first four sets scattering his arrows across Alexandra Palace like a bag of spanners falling out of the loft.

Wade now faces Geordie dark horse Ryan Joyce in the fourth round. TAKE IT ON THE CHIN: Wade tries to win over the crowd