The only World Cup worth watching in 2019 starts in an hour with the international comedy roadshow of the PDC World Cup: the sole pairs tournament on the professional darting calendar. The tournament has gone north to Hamburg from Frankfurt this year, and it's the bottom half of the tournament bracket this evening.
Following midlife crisis clown Peter Wright's slide down the rankings and Gary Anderson now the World #3, Scotland avoid being the top seeds and headline the evening as #2 seeds against fellow middle-aged players in Denmark's ever-present Per Laursen and debutant Niels Heinsoe; there should be no repeat of 2017's Round 1 upset, but with Snakebite's constant equipment changes and the Flying Scotsman's bank troubles, it might happen.
Speaking of THAT upset, Singapore's legendary Lim duo of Paul & Harith aim to spring a surprise against #3 seeds Wales, once again comprising of rugger manlets Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton. The other seeds in action are the #6 of Northern Ireland, with Daryl Gurney and Brendan Dolan facing dancing Devon Petersen's South Africa, and #7 seeds Belgium, with Dimitri Van den Bergh's fancy dancing (and some guy called Kim Huybrechts) complimented by Hong Kong and Royden Lam's FANCY GLASSES.
The non-seed matchups see Dyson Parody's Gibraltar face the dangerous Japan pairing of Seigo Asada and Haruki Muramatsu, Darius Labanauskas's Lithuania debut against Cody Harris's New Zealand, Diogo Portela graces the stage for Brazil against a Sweden pairing featuring David Lynch impersonator Magnus Caris in what could be his final professional match, and hosts Germany face Hungary in what could be a mauling of the Magyars.
All first round matches are pairs with the best of 9 legs (first to 5) going through.
Coverage starts from 6:00pm UK time on Sky Sports Action.
>Tonight's matches - Round One (best of 9 legs doubles) Gibraltar v Japan Northern Ireland (6) v South Africa New Zealand v Lithuania Belgium (7) v Hong Kong Brazil v Sweden Wales (3) v Singapore Hungary v Germany Scotland (2) v Denmark
>Tomorrow's matches - Round One (best of 9 legs doubles) China v United States of America Italy v Canada Poland v Czech Republic Republic of Ireland v Greece England (1) v Philippines Austria (8) v Russia Australia (5) v Finland Netherlands (4) v Spain
>Seeded Nations 1. England - Rob Cross & Michael Smith 2. Scotland - Gary Anderson & Peter Wright 3. Wales - Gerwyn Price & Jonny Clayton 4. Netherlands - Michael van Gerwen & Jermaine Wattimena 5. Australia - Simon Whitlock & Kyle Anderson 6. Northern Ireland - Daryl Gurney & Brendan Dolan 7. Belgium - Kim Huybrechts & Dimitri Van den Bergh 8. Austria - Mensur Suljovic & Zoran Lerchbacher
>Other Nations Brazil - Diogo Portela & Artur Valle Canada - Dawson Murschell & Jim Long China - Xiaochen Zong & Yuanjun Liu (Qingyu Zhan replaced by Yuanjun Liu) Czech Republic - Pavel Jirkal & Karel Sedlacek Denmark - Per Laursen & Niels Heinsoe Finland - Marko Kantele & Kim Viljanen Germany - Max Hopp & Martin Schindler Gibraltar - Dyson Parody & Antony Lopez Greece - John Michael & Veniamin Symeonidis Hong Kong - Royden Lam & Kai Fan Leung Hungary - Pal Szekely & Janos Vegso Italy - Andrea Micheletti & Stefano Tomassetti Japan - Seigo Asada & Haruki Muramatsu Lithuania - Darius Labanauskas & Mindaugas Barauskas New Zealand - Cody Harris & Haupai Puha Philippines - Lourence Ilagan & Noel Malicdem Poland - Krzysztof Ratajski & Tytus Kanik Republic of Ireland - Steve Lennon & William O'Connor Russia - Boris Koltsov & Aleksey Kadochnikov Singapore - Paul Lim & Harith Lim South Africa - Devon Petersen & Vernon Bouwers Spain - Cristo Reyes & Toni Alcinas Sweden - Dennis Nilsson & Magnus Caris United States of America - Darin Young & Chuck Puleo
So after the Premier League was won by a certain Michael van Gerwen, the Euro Tour resumed with THE event for MVG: Zwolle's Dutch Darts Masters. Such is Mighty Mike's dominance of the DDM that the last time he lost in the event, it was 64 players! Kim Huybrechts was the last man to beat him in 2013, but would it be 6 in a row?
The Friday saw a number of PL players in action, with the pick of the lot being Max Hopp's 6-5 victory over fellow contender Nathan Aspinall that saw both average around 100. Glen Durrant thrashed home qualifier Alexander Merckx 6-1 and was given a walk-over to the Sunday as James Wade pulled out yet again. Raymond van Barneveld averagws below 90 in a 6-2 hammering of Hungarian qualifier Pal Szekely. The performance of Friday went to Austrian transsexual Rowby-John Rodriguez, who averaged nearly 109 against funny faced Belgian Mike de Decker who hit a 105 himself.
Saturday was a day of upsets as 7 of the 15 seeds in action lost, with arguably the most shocking being Swedish strongman Dennis Nilsson beating Jonny Clayton 6-5 with an 85 average. Daryl Gurney, Mensur Suljovic and Michael Smith were the PL stars crashing out at this stage, with MVG producing a 107 average to smack William O'Connor 6-2. The top seed in the bottom half almost lost as Ian White survived 5 match darts to get past Mickey Mansell.
Sunday was an historic day. First, Raymond van Barneveld played his final ranking event on home soil, losing in the last leg to van Gerwen in the last 16. Duzza made his first Euro Tour last 8 but was annihilated by Gerwyn Price, who was the next victim of the MVG ET deciding leg curse. Diamond scrapped past Peter Wright 7-3 to set up MVG-White III. It was to be different this time though as MVG's doubling went to pieces and went 3-0 down, and despite eventually dragging Ian to the all important deciding leg, didn't get a dart at a finish after 18 thrown and saw his 28-match and 5 year Euro Tour last leg decider streak ended by Stoke's #1.
Am I the only one who absolutely hates the format though? Should be all doubles matches. How stupid is it that a matchup in the later rounds can be decided with all singles matches?
Sebastian Howard
Have faith my Nordic friend. PDC Nordic & Baltic Tour is about shit all over the so called big names this year.
>"They should change the format of the World Cup," said Van Gerwen. "It's not really a team event, it's singles. It's a lot of singles and I keep telling them - I like to see pairs."
>the short format guarantees drama and shocks Yeah, the doubles do that but the singles matches guarantee absolutely zero drama and shocks which is evidenced by England and the Netherlands winning every year.
Aiden Davis
New Zealand v Lithuania and Wales/Singapore should be tidy games.
>Haruhi wearing glasses What the fuck is this montage about?
Mason Harris
>promo videos is this the songfestival
Gavin Robinson
Haruki even. I forget Muramatsu's not a woman.
James Ross
>the parody duo of Dyson Parody and Dylan Duo is no more.
Chase Long
Haha time for memes
Elijah Reed
>these fucking GCSE geography filler packages
Connor Baker
>Sky using a red dot for the country that holds throw Well done again, lads.
Ryder Perry
>Parody Fucking idiot.
Adrian Carter
PROUD BRITISH TERRITORY TAKEN ON THE FILFY JAPS ON THIS D-DAY ANNIVERSARY
Nicholas Lewis
Surprised at how bad the Japs are. Both of them are way better than this.
Adam Sanchez
Cheers OP. Stopped watching the Premier league shite more or less after the Netherlands legs but been watching a fair bit of the floor and tour events here and there. Italy v Canada last year was about as grim as it gets so sort of interested to see if we'll get a repeat of that, seems very possible. I think the yanks are in relatively 'good' nick atm so probably will wipe the floor with China, but that has potential to be an epic 1st round turd fest.
Honestly think we'll see a new nation win it this year, but i do sort of fancy England if they get the dutch in the semi's, and if Wales or Northern Ireland get to the final that would make it interesting against England.
Lucas Cox
>tfw no Rowby-John Rodriguez
Oliver Williams
If the Gib government didn't pay for their Euro Tour event, they would have been binned years ago. Have never improved.
>However, the team I think will win it is Northern Ireland. I think Daryl Gurney and Brendan Dolan will be right up for this, they're both playing well, they've played well as a team in the past and I think this is their time.
There's only one sensible conclusion to make: The CIA and Bazza have teamed up to fuck up all of Asstits predictions to screw with his mind to prevent him making a comeback and win the worlds. There's no other possible reason for all this!
Nilsson producing some stunning darts at times in this one
Elijah Murphy
I apologize
Grayson Murphy
Wheres this come from lol
Camden Moore
Is this competition any different than the british-only ones? The bongs in those could consistently hit 120+ every play and these world guys are struggling to even get a 60.
>the midget is just shit And something was seriously wrong with his mouth during his throw. He was putting on all kind of strange faces while throwing. Not that his face wasn't strange enough in first place.
>wattimena >cross (2nd time) and smith (1st time) I was worried about Gary but he seems fine
Ryan Reed
Most convincing showing so far.
Justin Murphy
wrong quote
John Adams
>le giggling darts man
Jayden Johnson
>Englel
Juan Johnson
>dutch/afrikaans bouwers interview based
Benjamin Carter
So that's the first day completed and just the two seeds crashed out. But it was the most deserved two who went home as both were totally outplayed.
Devon Petersen and an impressive debut from Vernon Bouwers got South Africa over the line against a terrible Northern Ireland pairing of Daryl Gurney and Brendan, while Singapore's Paul & Harith Lim embarrassed the Welsh #3 seeds, with Jonny Clayton performing significantly worse than Gerwyn Price.
See you tomorrow for day 2.
Jace Rivera
Until then, fren.
Ian Foster
february 8th farewell tournament van barneveld with >taylor >mardle >bobby george >van der vaart >robin van persie lel
