2023 PDC World Cup of Darts Day One

The new look, World Cup of Darts got underway in Germany with the first game in all 12 groups being played out on the opening night out.

Team Camaraderie Not Needed For Belgium

Belgium defeated Finland 4-0 with a doubling masterclass from Dimitri Van den Bergh. The result seems to show that all is good in the Belgium camp but no eye contact from the pair throughout the game and not one of the regular fist bumps from the duo who danced onto the stage several years back.

Maybe once the pair have slept on it we will see a different approach from Belgium tomorrow when they take on China but all eyes will be on Van den Bergh and Huybrechts.

Australia opened up their defence of the World Cup title with a win over debutants Guyana. Heta and Whitlock were under no pressure throughout and eased to victory and stormed to the top of the group.

Home nation Germany demolished Hong Kong 4-0. The German duo only allowed the Hong Pair one dart at the outer ring, with Martin Schindler finding all four doubles.

Seeds Under Pressure

The opening night delivered several upsets with the biggest coming at the hands of Northern Ireland losing 4-1 to France.

Les Bleus raced into a two-leg lead and it should have been three before Brendan Dolan found two tops to checkout 100. The best checkout out was to follow not long after, with France making it 3-1 it was over to Tricole to seal the victory in style, which he did with a beautiful 114 out.

Benjamin Reus put in the individual performance of the night helping Denmark to a 4-2 and finished it in style with a 116 checkout.

The winning checkout was just the icing on the cake, as Benjamin Reus found three consecutive 180s mid-way through the game and individually averaged 114.

Seed 16 Switzerland also look in trouble of progressing to round two, after falling to a 4-3 defeat in the opening game of the evening, winning their first World Cup game after 11 attempts.

Elsewhere on Night One

Poland had to rely on all their experience to complete a comeback in victory over Portugal. The Portuguese raced into a two-nil lead before Poland won four of the next five to win the opener in this group.

The Legendary Paul Lim was part of the Singapore team who fell short to the Czech Republic, while Keane Barry put in an assured performance on his international debut at the World Cup to help the Republic of Ireland beat Thailand 4-1.

Devon Petersen captained South Africa to a 4-2 win, but it wasn’t all plain sailing for South Africa. They looked to be easing to victory after leading 3-0. Eight missed match darts followed and Spain fought back to 3-2. The Spanish team had two darts to level the game up, but once missed Devon made it ninth time lucky.

Three-time Quarter Finalist Canada looked assured in defeating India 4-2, and they will look to seal the top stop when they meet Hungary tomorrow evening.

The session was completed with Latvia defeating New Zealand 4-2.

2023 PDC World Cup of Darts Night One

Thursday June 15 (1900 local time, 1800 BST)
Group Stage – First Matches x12
Team 1 v Team 2 from each group
Italy 4-3 Switzerland
Poland 4-3 Portugal
Czech Republic 4-2 Singapore
South Africa 4-2 Spain
Republic of Ireland 4-1 Thailand
France 4-1 Northern Ireland
Belgium 4-0 Finland
Canada 4-2 India
Denmark 4-2 Austria
Germany 4-0 Hong Kong
Australia 4-0 Guyana
Latvia 4-2 New Zealand