The World Cup (Darts!)

Posted: 04.06.14 in Tournament Analysis Blog category

The Darts World Cup starts tomorrow! We can't wait!

Two World Cups starting in the space of a week, it’s almost too much! Darts first, starting tomorrow and then the football, which kicks off on Thursday! We do love the “beautiful game” here at the Darts Performance Centre but it is of course the tungsten World Cup we are interested in.

The World Cup of darts is one of my favourite tournaments along with the UK Open. Can you see a theme developing? As it was quite rightly pointed out to me by a knowledgeable young darts fan recently, they said:

“In the World Cup you don’t just get to see players you have never seen before but they are competing for their countries that you didn’t even know were in to darts!”

At the UK Open of course you get grass roots players  with their moment in the sun, battling out with the “big boys”. No better example of that was of course this year when former World Champion and World Cup winner Barney took on Darts Performance Centre sponsored player Tony Broughton in Minehead, the magic of the cup eh!

I refreshed my memory of the past tournaments by trawling through the blogs we wrote at the time. The first one was held in December 2010 in Houghton Le Spring in Tyne and Wear. Tickets were a struggle to sell, England crashed out after Taylor and Wade practised alone ignoring our advice on the necessity for team spirit and team cohesion. We suggested:

Let’s look out for the team that talks to each other, encourages, complements each other in technique as well as personality and displays positive body language and remembers the golden rule of all successful teams. You win together and you lose together but whatever the outcome you display great pride in your team.

In the end this advice proved prophetic, great mates and team mates Barney and Co Stompe beat the Wales team of Mark Webster and Barrie Bates, who also demonstrated great camaraderie and whose strength as a team outweighed the sum of their individual parts!

The event wasn’t played in 2011 but returned to the calendar in February 2012 at a new home in Hamburg . Taylor and Lewis were the champions squeezing past Team Australia (Whitlock and Nicholson) 4:3 in the final.

In February 2013 the World Cup returned to Hamburg. We suggested that maybe there should be a bidding process, like for the football, this way the darts World Cup could find a new home each year. Hmmm, let’s forget we suggested that! Hamburg is just great! Taylor and Lewis triumphed again over the Huybrechts brothers who had endured an emotional rollercoaster to make it through to the final!

The 2014 event is still in Hamburg but has been moved to June. The tournament has expanded and there are 32 nations taking part, including Italy, France, Malaysia, Hungary, Russia, Thailand and India. For a full list see the excellent PDC preview of the event here!

Betting wise Team Holland (Barney and Mighty Mike) and England (The Power and Jackpot) are pretty much inseparable at 11/8 to win in. Outside bets are-Scotland at 6-1 (Wright and Thornton) who should be formidable opponents if The Thorn takes his A game to Germany. Australia are a threat (12-1) but I won’t be investing in them.A lot will depend on Nicholson’s form and The Wizard has also had a troublesome few months.

The Huybrechts boys fit the bill in the team spirit department for Belgium at 20/1 as do Team Wales (Webster and Burnett) available at 33/1 and Team Spain at 250-1(Alcianas and Rodriguez) have a superb working relationship on the oche.

Team Northern Ireland (Dolan and Mansell) are worth keeping an eye on at a best price 100-1.  Both players are, err, meticulous in their approach and throw and their pace could cause problems for whoever they are playing!

But the prospect of watching Belgium take on India and Scotland v Russia is what a World Cup is all about, I can’t wait for it all to kick off!

Ball image courtesy of Danilo Rizzuti /www.freedigitalphotos.net

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The Darts Performance Centre is a resource to assist dart players of all standards play better darts. The site is arranged as an online coaching manual. There is advice on technique, nerves, psychology, goal setting, practice games, an area to log your statistics and an interactive area where your darting questions are answered by two sports scientists, one with 30 years dart playing experience. You also get an invite to our free but exclusive members only events and acess to our members only darts coaching app! Membership is £25 per year!