{"id":6066,"date":"2023-09-26T10:07:59","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T10:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/2023\/09\/column-hr426-wdf-world-cup-as-the-sun-rises\/"},"modified":"2024-02-14T22:17:49","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T22:17:49","slug":"column-hr426-wdf-world-cup-as-the-sun-rises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/2023\/09\/column-hr426-wdf-world-cup-as-the-sun-rises\/","title":{"rendered":"Column #HR426 WDF World Cup\u2026 as the sun rises"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, September 26, 2023
\n<\/strong>Column HR426\u00a0<\/strong>
\nWDF World Cup… as the sun rises<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the sun rises at 7:18\u202fa.m.\u00a0in the seaport town of Esbjerg, Denmark, dart players (men, women, boys and girls plus one \u201cfeel like a girl”) from 49 nations will be preparing for the \u201cGreatest Event in Darts\u201d.\u00a0 Make no mistake it\u2019s THE meeting of the darts world.\u00a0\u00a0The town of Esbjerg will open their arms in welcome as visitors open their wallets.<\/p>\n

The Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote,\u00a0\u201cThe best laid schemes o\u2019 Mice an\u2019 Men\u00a0Gang aft agley<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Burns was talking to a mouse which a “Scotchman”\u00a0may do after a wee too many sips of Scotland\u2019s finest.<\/p>\n

For this edition of darts excellence, the Old Dart Coach had planned an in-depth analysis of the WDF World Cup XXII starting\u00a0today\u00a0or\u00a0tomorrow\u00a0(depending on your time zone).\u00a0 Those plans went sideways as most, if not all the non-North American male players, elicited the sound of an owl from the ODC.\u00a0 The “mercenaries” (PDC) have wreaked havoc with men\u2019s darts and the World Cup taking the best of the men.\u00a0 The lady\u2019s field is loaded with the USA women in the hunt against an England team that is stacked.\u00a0 Not a physical comment.<\/p>\n

The ODC\u2019s love affair, which was not always returned, with the World Cup began in 1979 at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas.\u00a0 He, along with a cadre of Northern Californians, arrived ready to party.\u00a0 They got their wish when Nicky Virachkul won the singles defeating Ceri Rhys Morgan from Wales 4-3.\u00a0 The highlight was the ODC and Ron Beach procuring cases of beer then transporting said product to a \u201cparched dry dart hall.\u201d\u00a0 They shared their good fortune with others for a price.<\/p>\n

Wales won the first World Cup then had to wait through 7 England wins before they captured another.\u00a0 In all of 22 World Cups England\u2019s men have won 14, Wales – 3, Netherlands – 3 and Australia – 1.\u00a0 The Aussie win came in 2017 in Kobe, Japan.\u00a0 England\u2019s early dominance featured the familiar names of Bristow and Lowe.\u00a0 They won 5 singles and 5 doubles.<\/p>\n

In the good old days, the draw was made with the home country assured to be in at least one final.\u00a0 In 1985 in Brisbane the late Terry O\u2019Dea was quoted as saying,\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ll be in the final of the four person\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>The USA lady\u2019s manager (name withheld as he did a lousy job) said, \u201cThey should as they play ‘bye’ and ‘failed to show’.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

History showed the USA as huge underdogs to the English in the semifinals.\u00a0\u00a0The night before John Kramer explained to Eric Bristow, in the hotel lobby, that the USA would provide a proper \u201cass kicking\u201d along with the suggestion that he \u201crelieve himself up a rope”.<\/p>\n

Kramer no lie.\u00a0 As\u00a0each leg was won in the semis Kramer stuck his head in the English practice room announcing the score.\u00a0 The final:\u00a0 9-0 for the Colonies.\u00a0 Love JK.<\/p>\n

With little success on the men\u2019s side, the ladies of the USA have four wins with individual singles gold for Sandy Reitan, Eva Grigsby, Kathy Maloney and Stacy Bromberg.\u00a0 Bromberg was denied the chance to repeat as a result of the “horse feathers\u201d decision of the WDF, which it is most capable of doing.\u00a0 USA’s\u00a0WDF representative, Buddy Bartoletta, and ADO vice\u00a0president, didn\u2019t stand up for Stacy.<\/p>\n

Traitor.\u00a0 Now he\u2019s vice president of the WDF.\u00a0 Still a traitor.<\/p>\n

The Netherlands (men) and England’s (women) are expected to repeat as overall winners.\u00a0\u00a0New Zealand’s Darren Herewini is back to defend his singles title.\u00a0\u00a0The gold Canadian pair of David Cameron and Jeff Smith will not return as they have moved onto “greener pastures.\u201d\u00a0 Ladies\u2019 singles and doubles champion Mikuru Suzuki (with Mayumi Ouchi) is a no show, but not Ouchi.<\/p>\n

The men of the Netherlands have the depth to repeat with two players (Jelle Klaasen and Wesley Plaisier) ranked in the WDF top ten.\u00a0 The women\u2019s field is dominated by the English with Claire Brookin, Beau Greaves, Deta Hedman and Lorraine Winstanley.\u00a0 The smart money has Greaves winning the singles and doubles (with partner Deta Headman) and England the 4-person.\u00a0\u00a0That has only happened once with Lisa Ashton (singles), Ashton and Claire Brookin (doubles) and then adding Fallon Sherrock and Deta Hedman in the 4-person.<\/p>\n

North America\u2019s best chance for a Gold is found in the USA ladies\u2019 team of Marlise Kiel, Carolyn Mars, Paula Murphy and Cali West.\u00a0 All are not in their first rodeo and have a shot at proving USA women\u2019s darts has returned to the Golden Era of Sandy Reitan, Kathy Karpovich, Kathy Maloney and Eva Grisby.<\/p>\n

The singles draw finds only Paula Murphy and Marlise Keil in the second round.\u00a0 Not so lucky is Cali West who gets a preliminary round draw of the red-hot playing Rhian O\u2019Sullivan of Wales.\u00a0 A win there advances West to face #1 Japanese player Mayumi Ouchi.\u00a0 Caroline Mars should get through the first two rounds.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s pairs should see West-Keil in the third round.\u00a0 The M&Ms (Mars and Murphy) got no help when they drew\u00a0the tough Japanese pair of Shimizu and Yamamoto.\u00a0\u00a0A pair of wins would place them up against Dutch #1 De Graaf and Zijjstra.\u00a0 The good news out of the draw is that the English pairs would meet in the 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0round with one sent to the sidelines.<\/p>\n

The North American men face a difficult situation.\u00a0 In most cases they are facing opponents they know little about.\u00a0 Here the draw may decide the outcome.<\/p>\n

The “mercenaries” (PDC) were in place last week for the Hungarian Darts Trophy.\u00a0 The event paid Dave Chisnall\u00a0\u00a325,000, which extends his Euro tour earnings to \u00a3120,000+ for the year.<\/p>\n

For runner up Luke Humphries, it was once again \u201cclose but no cigar\u201d or \u201calways the bridesmaid, never the bride.\u201d\u00a0 At 4-5 down Humphries used 15, 12 and a 9-darter to forge ahead 7-5, a leg shy of victory.\u00a0 Chisnall, as he has want to do on the Euro Tour, used 13 and 16 darts to level at 7.\u00a0\u00a0After 15 darts Chisnall wanted 24.\u00a0 Humphries used 14 darts to leave 24, missing with his one remaining, leaving 12.\u00a0 It took Chisnall 2 for the d12 win.<\/p>\n

As the sun rises tomorrow, the\u00a0Old Dart Coach will be \u201cJohnny on the Spot\u201d reporting on the WDF World Cup.\u00a0\u00a0Toeing the Oche will cover the tournament with (maybe) daily updates as the event deserves.<\/p>\n

Good luck to Brandon Weening who is making his first World Cup appearance.\u00a0 His pappa (Wayne) is bursting his buttons with his son\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

Stay thirsty my friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the sun rises at 7:18\u202fa.m.\u00a0in the seaport town of Esbjerg, Denmark, dart players (men, women, boys and girls plus one \u201cfeel like a girl”) from 49 nations will be preparing for the \u201cGreatest Event in Darts\u201d…\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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Reed","author_link":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/author\/howie-reed\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"As the sun rises at 7:18\u202fa.m.\u00a0in the seaport town of Esbjerg, Denmark, dart players (men, women, boys and girls plus one \u201cfeel like a girl\") from 49 nations will be preparing for the \u201cGreatest Event in Darts\u201d...\u00a0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":17,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"howie-reed","display_name":"Howie Reed","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/111howie.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/111howie.jpg"},"first_name":"Howie","last_name":"Reed","user_url":"http:\/\/www.dartoidsworld.com","job_title":"","description":"Astute, often controversial, and always humorous, the Old Dart Coach, Howie Reed (a former rodeo cowboy and advertising executive), is heralded as the Dean of Darts Chroniclers - the most prolific and widely followed writer ever about our sport. He goes back decades with the legends and knows where the skeletons are buried (just ask any of the ADO and WDF old-timers!). Here are four well-known facts about the Old Dart Coach: 1) he is a Republican, 2) he loves the ladies, 3) he can drink most anybody under the table, and 4) he throws darts as bad as Dartoid."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6103,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6066\/revisions\/6103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6066"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartoidsworld.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=6066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}