Another week comes along and another darts tournament begins as on Thursday night the latest staging of the PDC World Cup of Darts commences in Frankfurt. 32 nations will head to the German city looking for glory but only one pair can get their hands of the trophy.
England will be bidding to regain their title but a number of the nations around them in the rankings look a lot stronger this year which should make for a much better event over the course of the four days.
Format
This is a quirky tournament. Each country has two players. In the first round teams simply play a best of nine leg doubles match which is sure to create all sorts of carnage in the draw. Those who win play 2x singles matches in the last 16, quarter final and the semi-final. They are over the best of seven legs and if the two matches are shared the tie will be decided by a best of seven doubles.
The final will then be played out over five rubbers with two singles matches over the best of seven starting things off before a doubles match and then the reverse singles. The first team to win three rubbers will win the trophy.
Top Seeds
England are the number one seeds. They are represented by Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis and will be a tough nut to crack again this year. They beat Scotland in the final to win the trophy last year and they will be eager to defend the title.
Scotland are the number two seeds this year with Robert Thornton partnering the world champion Gary Anderson again after Peter Wright pulled out of the event. Wright was Anderson’s partner when Scotland made the final 12 months ago.
The Netherlands are seeded three and they are another nation who miss their second strongest player as Jelle Klaasen conveniently pulled out of the competition to avoid partnering Michael van Gerwen. Raymond Barneveld gets that honour in ‘The Cobra’s’ absence.
Northern Ireland have been plucked out as the fourth seeds with Daryl Gurney seriously enhancing their claims. He is a man who can beat anyone over seven legs. He partners Brendan Dolan in the tournament this year.
Wales are the fifth seeds and you could argue that the 2010 finalists are stronger than they’ve ever been with Mark Webster and Gerwyn Price representing them this year. Price has won two Players Championship tournaments in the last few weeks while Webster is a seasoned campaigner at this level.
Australia are former finalists in this tournament and they are seeded six this year. I think they are much stronger automatically with Kyle Anderson as Simon Whitlock’s partner instead of Paul Nicholson and you wouldn’t want to run into this pairing in top form.
Belgium are seeded seven in this event. The 2013 finalists haven’t changed in team line up even though the likes of Dimitri van den Bergh is breathing down Ronny Huybrechts’ neck. For now the brothers Huybrechts team remains intact.
Austria complete the seeds with the much improved Mensur Suljovic once again teaming up with the impressive youngster Rowby-John Rodriguez. In truth this pairing could be absolutely anything including a potential danger for England in the quarter final.
Unseeded Nations to Watch
Germany will get a lot of crowd support this week with Max Hopp and Jyhan Artut taking to the stage for them. Both are very competent players who wouldn’t be out of place in a singles match so it will be interesting to see how they go if they make it into the last 16 and beyond.
Spain look a solid outfit with Cristo Reyes and Antonio Alcinas in their ranks. Alcinas was half of the Spanish pairing who dumped England out of the inaugural tournament and he’ll be hoping history repeats itself as the two nations meet in the first round here on Friday.
Three time world champion John Part leads a potentially dangerous Canada side while Devon Petersen and South Africa have history here. Finland are former semi-finalists in this tournament and USA are used to doubles play and could shake this thing up if both Darin Young and Larry Butler are on form.
Betting
This is a strange tournament in that I’m usually running scared of Michael van Gerwen but I’m not doing that here. I always think the key to this tournament isn’t how good your leading player is it is how strong or weak your worst player is because at all times that man is in the game and will need to be able to fend for himself.
Obviously we have no issues with England so they are worthy favourites and in truth look plotted up to the semi-final assuming they don’t do anything silly against Spain and while the semi-final looks like it might be tricky they would be warm favourites against Wales, Northern Ireland or whoever so I’m keen to dodge England in the draw for as long as possible.
That sends me heading for the bottom half of the draw where actually Scotland might be there for the taking. Anderson and Thornton have never really gelled in this event. In the two times they’ve paired up they’ve been beaten by Spain both times and long before the final day. That should give Belgium plenty of hope in their quarter.
If Ronny Huybrechts was in any form I would probably take Belgium but he isn’t and that has to go down as a concern so I’ll delve into the bottom quarter where Holland and Australia are the main seeds while Germany are also in this section.
Raymond Barneveld can be hit and miss in this tournament as evidenced by the fact that the Netherlands needed doubles to come past a pretty average Northern Ireland side last year. They were 2014 winners though so need to be respected. The big concern I have is the amount of doubles MVG has missed of late. In best of seven matches they will be costly.
With that in mind at 40/1 I’m going to chance the Aussies who should give us a decent run if they overcome the Germans in the match of the first round. Kyle Anderson is a solid second player. He has plenty of scoring power to set up finishes for Whitlock in the doubles and can hold his own in most second player singles matches.
Australians are always proud creatures and I suspect this pair could really give their all this weekend with both being genuine Aussies instead of a token one in the form of Paul Nicholson. If they can take care of Holland I wouldn’t be surprised to see them still around on Sunday night.
PDC World Cup of Darts Tips
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