World Cup of Darts: Defending champs Wales out, England into quarters

Croatia dumped out reigning champions Wales to reach the World Cup of Darts quarter-finals for the first time on Saturday, as Italy stunned 2022 winners Australia while England, Scotland and Northern Ireland got through.

The third day of action in the Pairs event saw 16 nations competing across two sessions at the Eissporthalle in Frankfurt, as the knockout phase of the tournament began.

Croatia’s Boris Krcmar and Romeo Grbavac caused a major upset with a terrific display, defying a 91 average from Welsh duo Jonny Clayton and Jim Williams to break new ground at the World Cup of Darts.

The unheralded Croatians punished some early profligacy from the No 2 seeds to seize the initiative, although Clayton and Williams fought back valiantly to level at six apiece.

Nevertheless, after Wales squandered four darts at double for a 7-6 advantage, Grbavac landed successive 84 and 83 combinations to cap off a famous triumph.

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Elsewhere, England began their bid for a record-breaking fifth World Cup crown with an 8-3 demolition of 2023 quarter-finalists France, as world champion Luke Humphries made a winning start on his World Cup debut.

Despite Humphries’ status as world No 1, it was Michael Smith who adopted the captain’s role for the top seeds, who recovered from a sluggish start to sweep aside Thibault Tricole and Jacques Labre.

France established a 2-1 lead, although Humphries and Smith soon found their feet, winning seven of the next eight legs to cap off a resounding win.

England’s reward is an exciting quarter-final showdown against sixth seeds Northern Ireland, as Josh Rock and Brendan Dolan defied a late onslaught to deny hosts Germany in a deciding-leg thriller.

Martin Schindler landed two ton-plus checkouts as Germany threatened to overturn a 7-4 deficit, until Rock sealed Northern Ireland’s progress with a 15-dart hold in the decider.

However, it was former finalists Belgium who produced the performance of the day, defying six 180s and a ton-plus average from Dutch duo Michael van Gerwen and Danny Noppert to storm into the last eight.

Dimitri Van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts dumped out Noppert and Dirk van Duijvenbode at the same stage of last year’s event, and they repeated the feat with an inspired display of finishing.

Huybrechts was the star of the show in the opening exchanges, following up an 89 kill with 129 and 121 outshots on the bull, before Van den Bergh sank a classy 86 finish to continue their charge.

Van Gerwen and Noppert scored superbly but struggled on the outer ring, and they paid a heavy price as the fifth seeds powered to a crushing 8-2 victory.

Belgium will now play Italy for a place in the semi-finals, after Michele Turetta and Massimo Dalla Rosa won through an extraordinary last-leg decider against 2022 champions Australia.

The Italian duo survived six match darts in an epic finale, as Damon Heta and Simon Whitlock crashed out at the last 16 stage for the first time as a partnership.

Earlier in the day, two-time winners Scotland opened their challenge with an emphatic 8-2 win over Poland, as Peter Wright and Gary Anderson converted 47 per cent of their attempts at double to set up a last eight showdown against Sweden.

Sweden advanced to the quarter-finals for a second straight year, after Jeffrey de Graaf and Oskar Lukasiak closed out a hard-fought 8-6 success against Czech duo Adam Gawlas and Karel Sedlacek.

In the day’s other tie, 2021 runners-up Austria continued their serene progress in Frankfurt, with Rowby-John Rodriguez conjuring up a superb 121 checkout to wrap up an 8-4 victory over history-making debutants Chinese Taipei.

Austria will now take on Croatia in Sunday’s opening quarter-final, as the remaining eight nations compete for the coveted title on a bumper final day of action at the Eissporthalle.

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