A Dutch darting demolition. That best describes the performance of Michael van Gerwen and Raymond van Barneveld as they whitewashed Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis 3-0 in the final of the World Cup of Darts to deny the English duo a hat-trick in Hamburg.
It was the final line-up that everybody had predicted in advance of the event but no-one could have foreseen such a one-sided affair as two singles wins for MVG and a singles triumph for RVB over an out of sorts Jackpot enabled the Dutch master and his apprentice to lift the gold trophy aloft and secure the Netherland’s second triumph in the competition.
Though devoid of any major upsets, reaching the quarter-finals marked a highly successful outing for South Africa and dancing Devon Petersen,
whilst the outstanding form of Northern Ireland’s Brendan Dolan, unquestionably the man of the tournament, helped carry Northern Ireland and his partner Mickey Mansell to the semi-finals.whilst the outstanding form of Northern Ireland’s Brendan Dolan, unquestionably the man of the tournament, helped carry Northern Ireland and his partner Mickey Mansell to the semi-finals.
ROUND ONE:
The format for the first round was simple as the tournament kicked-off on the Friday afternoon; 32 teams, 16 pairs matches, best of 9 legs.
After reaching last year’s semi-finals when they were defeated by the Huybrechts brothers, the Finns were understandably the favourites to beat Poland as the first game got underway but the experienced partnership of Komula and Haavisto were narrowly edged out 5-4 by the Polish pair of Chmielewski and Strozyk in a somewhat surprising result.
20 years on from his shock win at the
World Matchplay, the veteran American Larry
Butler took to the oche with regular World
Championship participant Darin Young to take
on Hungary with the winner potentially going
on to face England. A sweet finish of 86 for
Butler to wrap up a 5-1 win showed that the
wily old fox had lost none of his arrowing
accuracy.
There were two further familiar faces in the following game as Hong Kong’s unmistakeably bespectacled Royden Lam and Austria’s Robert Wagner, a 4-time Lakeside participant, squared off with their respective cohorts MacKenzie and Elvevoll. The former bodybuilder Wagner nailed a 133 finish with perfect precision but it wasn’t enough to prevent Hong Kong earning a comfortable 5-2 success.
BY TARRIQ IBRAHIM