A truly remarkable Hamburg debut for the World Cup of Darts has resulted in half of the seeds exiting the tournament before Sunday, including the first and third seeds.
A new first-time semi-finalist is guaranteed from the "meme nation" slot as New Zealand play Japan. The Kiwis competed in the only pairs match on Saturday bettering Norn Iron's conquerors South Africa (largely due to Vernon Bouwers' complete meltdown) while the Japs disposed of Wales's conquerors Singapore 2-0, but both Seigo Asada and Haruki Muramatsu had very ropey doubling which could prove costly this afternoon.
The only all-seed affair follows with the seriously impressive second seeds Scotland facing seventh seeds Belgium. Gary Anderson and Peter Wright beat Sweden for the loss of just two legs, but Snakebite's performance was non-threatening to say the very least; Kim Huybrechts and Dimitri Van den Bergh weren't at their best either to get rid of host nation Germany, but will need a serious improvement to stop the Scots from getting to tonight.
Saturday evening's star performers then grace the stage as Republic of Ireland play eighth seeds Austria; William O'Connor's blistering 115 average eliminated England while Mensur Suljovic's stellar 113 average got rid of the Americans. This tie could be decided by the lesser players in Steve Lennon and Zoran Lerchbacher respectively, but if the mental Magpie and the gaga Gentle face off, prepare for fireworks!
Closing the afternoon is a probable dismantling of plucky Canada by the new-look Netherlands duo of Michael van Gerwen and Jermaine Wattimena. The Canucks played as well as they could in removing a lacklustre Australia from contention, but Mighty Mike and the Machine Gun capitalised on big errors from Poland in their singles games. Dawson Murschell and Jim Long will need to play the games of their lives if they're to produce another upset.
Coverage starts from 12:00pm UK time on Sky Sports Action.
The Quarter Finals and Semi-Finals will be played as two best of seven leg 501 Singles matches, with both nations nominating the order in which their players play. In the event of both nations winning one Singles match apiece, a best of seven leg 501 Doubles match will be played to decide the tie.
>NINE-DARTER! Congratulations to Geert Nentjes, who has landed a nine-dart finish in @UnicornDarts Development Tour Event 11 - achieving the feat in his 4-2 win over Callum Loose. future goat
Ryan Mitchell
>"Jetzt geht's los" German crowd pls
Asher Martin
What's this shit, Cody?
Ethan Turner
Asada should move to England and play the tour. Actually a really decent player
James Smith
No I can't stand his face
Blake Brown
Holy shit, almost forgot about the afternoon session.
MVG fined 1.000 for not playing to the best of his ability
Angel Bennett
Canada vs. Japan in finals, lads?
DRA fine incoming!
Wyatt White
>WINNER | Luke Humphries secured his first @UnicornDarts Development Tour win of 2019 with a 5-4 defeat of Greg Ritchie in the Event 11 final. didn't he quit?
This is the Peter Wright of 2 years ago. Thought it was gone forever through all of the silly equipment changes.
Carson Collins
...oh well. Wright ruthless!
Jordan Edwards
Imagine losing to Peter Wright in the final of a TV major.
Hi Gerwyn.
Nathan Hall
deserved
Joshua Kelly
Way better. The pairs matches are so underutilised. It should be the main feature
Hunter Taylor
HAIL SCOTLAND!
Yup, that's what makes the tournament.
Jace Bennett
Gary doesn't give a fuck lel
Chase Collins
Is Wright crying again?
Juan Cooper
>Wright crying lyl
Asher Edwards
They should definitely alter it. Maybe a short group stage and a third player per country, and then just play all double constellations. Though I fear that a third player per contry would be a disadvantage for the smaller nations, who even struggle to find a decent second player.
Luis Lewis
no bully please
Jason Garcia
It's gone through a silly number of changes over the years. Only the past few years has it been somewhat stable.
So that's it for the 2019 World Cup of Darts. And what a tournament it was, with so many upsets along the way. But in the end it was the real #1 seeds of Scotland who finally broke the England-Netherlands duopoly thanks to a hard fought 3-1 win over tournament sensations Republic of Ireland.
The Scots' semi couldn't have been any easier as they dropped just 3 legs to Japan, with Seigo Asada's valiant fightback from 3-0 down just not enough to get a point against Gary Anderson. Haruki Muramatsu then produced a very disappointing 74 average against an under-par Peter Wright to lose 2-0. The Irish took out the Dutch in a 2-1 stunner that saw the Netherlands' weaknesses finally exposed. Steve Lennon left 49 after 15 to break Michael van Gerwen's throw but the world #1 thundered in a 136 and after going 3-1 up, squandered multiple opportunities to win it before winning with a 13 darter. William O'Connor and Jermaine Wattimena both struggled but the Machine Gun missing multiple darts in a crucial leg 2 set him on the road to a 4-1 loss. The pairs saw Lennon slam in 131 and 128 on their way to a 4-0 humiliation of the reigning champions.
The final began with Lennon outplaying Gando 4-2 with a 99 average but Wright recovered, surviving a missed dart for 3-2 from O'Connor to level up the game. That was where the luck of the Irish finally ended as they imploded in the pairs, losing 4-0 averaging only 83. Steve then lost 4-1 to Peter to secure the historic moment for the Scots.
/180/ returns on 20th July for THE tournament of the summer: the World Matchplay from Blackpool's legendary Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens. See you then.
