Friday, September 29, 2023
Column HR429
Day 3 of the WDF World Cup XXII
Three days into World Cup XXIII there are some conclusions that can be drawn. On the men’s side those countries with a strong presence among the PDC (mercenaries) or CDC have seen their WDF men’s programs become less dominant. The men’s singles quarter finals (played tomorrow) has not a single English, Scottish or Welsh player. The men’s pairs has only one team from Scotland representing the “home countries”.
One star has shown bright in the ladies’ sky and that’s 51-year-old Kirsi Viinikainen from Finland. Ranked 37th by the WDF she’s in the finals of the pairs and the semifinals of the singles – there she will play Deta Hedman for a finals spot. On the other side for the ladies Beau Greaves faces Netherland’s Noa-Lynn Van Leuven. Greaves has beaten Lynn Van Leuven like a dusty carpet in the past. A Viinikainen win would put her up against the best in the world (writes Captain oblivious).
In the last World Cup, Mikuru Suzuki won double gold – annexing singles and pairs. Could that happen again?
LADIES PAIRS
The final tomorrow between Beau Greaves and Deta Headman and Finland’s Kirsi Viinikainen and Sari Sauvola should be a barnburner. As expected, the English are in the finals after beating Netherland’s Aileen De Graaf and Anca Zijlstra 5-2. The Dutch jumped ahead 2-nil. The English duo won 5 of the next 6 for the win. “The Queen” Deta Headman was the “out lady” as she hit 4 of the 5 wins.
Finland won the bull against New Zealand in the semis, leading 3-2. New Zealand held and broke to level at 4. Finland took the decider after New Zealand failed to erase 54 with 9 darts. Shame on you.
The USA Ladies – Calli West and Marlise Kiel in the round of 64 to 32 went down to Veronika Ihasz and Nora Erdei of Hungary 4-3. The match went with the darts until the Hungarian pair broke in the decider. Kiel left 25 from 128 giving West 3 darts for the win – she managed 9 missing 2 and d8. Veronika Ihasz used 3 to erase 62.
Carolyn Mars and Paula Murphy suffered a similar fate in the same round losing to Michaela Jamnická and Nina Stašková of Slovakia. Nina Stašková took 107 and 57, the latter after Carolyn Mars missed 1 from 40. Mars and Murphy took the next two legs to level in a combined 59 darts. The Slovakian pair missed 10 doubles in losing the first of 2. Then Nina Stašková struck again, taking the next two legs for the match erasing 40 and 32.
Michaela Jamnická and Nina Stašková would lose next round to Aileen De Graaf and Anca Zijlstra of the Netherlands 4-2. Veronika Ihasz and Nora Erdei (Hungary) would make it to the top 16 where they’d lose to the Finish pair of Kirsi Viinikainen and Sari Sauvola 4-0. The Finish pair would be semifinalists after they beat the Welsh pair of Rhian O’Sullivan and Eve Watson. The Fins were level at 2, then ran off 3 on the trot with Kirsi Viinikainen taking out 76 for the 4-2 win.
The Canadian Ladies – had one of those days as both pairs went out in the round of 64. Darlene Van Sleeuwen and Brenda Moreau had a 3-2 lead (race to 4) over Denmark’s Michelle Merlit and Henriette Honore. Denmark leveled at 3 in 35 darts. The winning leg came with 26 darts after Brenda Moreau missed a finish. Darlene Van Sleeuwen and Brenda Moreau lost in the next round.
The Republic of Ireland’s Caroline Breen and Aoife McCormack sent Canadians Joanne Walsh and Stefenie Smith to the King George Pub for beverages 4-1. The lasses form the Emerald Isle would lose in the next round. Breen and McCormack lost 32 to 16.
4-PERSON TEAM (MEN)
The USA Men – On Day 3 of the World Cup, the USA men’s team showed their talents when they emerged from group play with a record of 3-0, going 27-6. They advanced to the round of 16 with a win against Austria 9-5. The USA was down 3-1 – then the Yanks went on a run taking 8 of 10 to move on. Bruce Robbins had three outs during the win.
The Canadian Men – never got out of their group. They had leads of 2-1, 4-1 and 5-3 losing to Croatia 9-6 courtesy of a 6-1 run. They had a chance to save the day breaking a tie at 5 (against Denmark) going on a three-leg run getting to 8, one leg from victory. Canada then got swamped by a 3-leg tsunami with a pair of 15-darters and an 18.
Tomorrow both the men’s and women’s pair’s finals hold center stage as the men’s singles gets down to the semifinals.
One last World Cup III story…
In Nelson, New Zealand, there were two hotels used for the ADO Tour Group. One very nice hotel was used by the ADO officials. The other “common” hotel was for “those not in favor”. The main difference was that the bar in the “not in favor hotel” was open until… well, until it closed. The “nice” hotel’s bar closed at 8:00 p.m. Coincidently that’s the time that the “not in favor hotel bar” locked the door and hung out the “CLOSED” sign as the party continued until the wee hours of the morning.
To close out today’s proceedings, Little Rodney Dangerfield once commented, “At my age sex is not good. I get tired just holding a book up”.
Stay thirsty my friends.
