2017 WDF World Cup – Day Three

With the Women’s Singles and Men’s Pairs going on, there were some good points to be had.

In the singles, Paula Murphy, Carole Herriott and Lisa Ayers were all at the line at 10.00am.  On paper, Lisa had the toughest draw, facing the experienced Swede Maud Jansson.  On the board, that theory proved correct, and Lisa became the first casualty of the day.  Carole fared much better, and eased to a 4-0 victory over Ireland’s Marrion Werder.  Florida’s Paula also advanced, with a tidy 4-1 win over Bahamian Angela Russell.  Of course, the two of them could have played this one a lot closer to home…  Cali West was the last American in action, and she held her nerve to take the seventh leg tie-breaker against Hong Kong’s Wallace Mok.

It was very disappointing to lose both Herriott and West second time out, going down to Cathy Leung (Hong Kong) and New Zealand’s Tina Osborne respectively, but Murphy emerged unscathed from her encounter with South Korean SukHee Song.

Paula then reached the Top 16, courtesy of a 4-2 win against Germany’s Stefanie Rennoch.  There, she met Aileen de Graaf, winner of the 2015 World Masters and reigning World Darts Trophy Champion.  This proved to be a great battle, swinging one way, and then the other, and it was no surprise to see it going to a decider.  Like the first six legs, there was little to choose between the pair, and both players left 40.  Paula had the first shot at it, but the chance went begging.  Aileen gratefully took the opportunity, and the match was over.

De Graaf’s run continued to the semis, where she lost to Dutch team-mate Sharon Prins.  In the final, Prins faces Sweden’s Vicky Pruim, who edged out Anastasia Dobromyslova.

In the Men’s Pairs, there was a very interesting first round clash between Robbie Phillips/Billy Squires and Andrew Townes/Raymond Smith.  With the U.S. and Australia battling it for the overall title, it remains to be seen just what impact this match will have, but unfortunately, the W went to the men from “Down Under” after a superb seven-legger.

Joe Chaney and Tom Sawyer beat the Bahamian duo of Christian Knowles and Wayne Copeland, and followed with a 4-2 defeat of Daniel Zygla and Michael Unterbuchner (Germany).  Then, down by 3 legs to 1 against Shingo Enomata and Katsuya Aiba, things didn’t look good for the U.S., but “Chanesawyer” kicked it up a notch to pocket the last three legs.

Tom and Joe now faced Boris Koltsov and Aleksandr Oreshkin, and of course, it was Sawyer who dumped Koltsov out of the singles the previous day.  This one also went to a decider, but it was the Russians who prevailed.  The made the most of this by going on to take the title from Jeff Smith and Kiley Edmunds.  Losing semi-finalists were Tony Martinez/Sven Verdonck (Belgium) and Cor Dekker/Thor Johansen (Norway).

Elswehere, Anastasia Dobromyslova and Marina Kononova made it a Russian double in the doubles event by beating Ireland’s Robyn Byrne and Caroline Breen.

The Youth Mixed Pairs was an all-Dutch affair, with Layla Brussel and Justin van Tergouw beating Lerena Rietbergen and Wessel Nijman.  The bronze medals went to the two Turkish teams, Melisa M Dogan/Erden Butuner, and Emine Dursan/Oguzhan Kaya.

Van Tergouw and Nijman captured the Boys Pairs from Killian Heffernan/Keane Barry, while the Iranian team of Deniz Hashtbaran and Mahshad Avazzadeh prevented a Dutch sweep of the Youth Doubles events by taking the Girls’ Pairs from Brussel and Rietbergen.

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