Iceman Price: "No reason why we can't win World Cup"
PUMPED-UP Gerwyn Price believes Wales can go on to win the Betway World Cup after a tough opening test.
The Iceman and Jonny Clayton, making his World Cup debut, overcame Thailand in a tense affair 5-3 in Frankfurt on Thursday night.
The Welsh pair found themselves tied at 3-3 before showing their class by rattling off the final two legs, including an impressive 108 checkout.
They now face Switzerland in the second round and Price admitted: “Doubles games in a short format are always hard and we’re both desperate to play well for our country.
“We weren’t at our best tonight but the only important thing tonight was to get through so we’re happy to have done that.
“Last year Mark (Webster) and myself did well, and I believe that there’s no reason why we can’t win this tournament this year if we play to our potential.”
GARY ANDERSON admitted he was “melting” as Scotland survived the heat to march into the second round of the Betway World Cup. Ando and Peter Wright produced a clinical performance of class to outgun the Americans 5-1 in Frankfurt last night. The Scots, who suffered a shock exit to Singapore in the first round a year ago, were always in control and KO’d the Yank duo Larry Butler and Darin Young without a sweat. Anderson said: “It was roasting on the stage. I think someone said it was 33 degrees through the day and it felt like it up there. I was melting, but the main thing was to get through and we did it. “Myself and Peter did the right things at the right times and it’s never an easy round. It’s tricky with long times between throws, but we kept it together.” It was a perfect start for the Scots with Wright hitting double 10 to give them first blood and double six from Snakebite to break throw and in control. Even though Ando missed his third attempt at a doubles, Wrighty mopped up impressively again with double two to make it 3-0. Finally a sluggish USA got back into the match with double eight from Butler but a very slick 13-dart leg and tops finish from Wright stopped any chance of comeback and a 4-1 lead. To top off a fine win came another set-up by Ando and tops finish from Wright and it made last night’s opening night disaster seem a distance memory. Scotland will now face Brazil in round two tomorrow (Sat) after they made easy work of Denmark with a 5-1 victory. Diogo Portela and Bruno Rangel will be tricky opponents with a very confident display against the disappointing Danes.
JAPAN produced the first major shock of the tournament by dumping out eighth seeds Austria in a 5-4 cracker. Seigo Asada and Haruki Muramatsu produced an impressive 92.74 average to see off World No 6 Mensur Suljovic and his partner Zoran Lerchbacher. Asada, making his World Cup debut, fired in four 180s as Japan raced into a 3-1 lead thanks to two 14-dart legs and a 13-darter. Japan went within a leg of victory at 4-2 before Suljovic led the Austria fightback to take the nail-biting match to a last-leg decider. Austria produced a maximum with their first visit in the final leg before Asada replied with a 180 of his own, and then found double ten to seal a famous win for Japan and set up a clash with Canada in round two. Muramatsu said: “We are delighted to make people in Japan happy. There are a lot of Japanese darts players watching us back home so to win this match makes us very proud. “Austria have a very good team and it seemed unlikely that we could beat them before the game, but we proved what we can do.”
NEW women’s star Momo Zhou produced a decent display with Xiaochen Zong but there was no fairytale story ending to her big stage debut as they went down 5-2 to Switzerland having missed 21 missed darts at doubles. Veteran John Part rolled back the years with a fine performance to help Canada beat Italy 5-1, Spain’s Toni Alcinas hit a sensational 136 checkout to dump Russia while Australia also beat Hong Kong 5-1.
By Phil Lanning (@lannomedia)
GARY ANDERSON admitted he was “melting” as Scotland survived the heat to march into the second round of the Betway World Cup. Ando and Peter Wright produced a clinical performance of class to outgun the Americans 5-1 in Frankfurt last night. The Scots, who suffered a shock exit to Singapore in the first round a year ago, were always in control and KO’d the Yank duo Larry Butler and Darin Young without a sweat. Anderson said: “It was roasting on the stage. I think someone said it was 33 degrees through the day and it felt like it up there. I was melting, but the main thing was to get through and we did it. “Myself and Peter did the right things at the right times and it’s never an easy round. It’s tricky with long times between throws, but we kept it together.” It was a perfect start for the Scots with Wright hitting double 10 to give them first blood and double six from Snakebite to break throw and in control. Even though Ando missed his third attempt at a doubles, Wrighty mopped up impressively again with double two to make it 3-0. Finally a sluggish USA got back into the match with double eight from Butler but a very slick 13-dart leg and tops finish from Wright stopped any chance of comeback and a 4-1 lead. To top off a fine win came another set-up by Ando and tops finish from Wright and it made last night’s opening night disaster seem a distance memory. Scotland will now face Brazil in round two tomorrow (Sat) after they made easy work of Denmark with a 5-1 victory. Diogo Portela and Bruno Rangel will be tricky opponents with a very confident display against the disappointing Danes.
JAPAN produced the first major shock of the tournament by dumping out eighth seeds Austria in a 5-4 cracker. Seigo Asada and Haruki Muramatsu produced an impressive 92.74 average to see off World No 6 Mensur Suljovic and his partner Zoran Lerchbacher. Asada, making his World Cup debut, fired in four 180s as Japan raced into a 3-1 lead thanks to two 14-dart legs and a 13-darter. Japan went within a leg of victory at 4-2 before Suljovic led the Austria fightback to take the nail-biting match to a last-leg decider. Austria produced a maximum with their first visit in the final leg before Asada replied with a 180 of his own, and then found double ten to seal a famous win for Japan and set up a clash with Canada in round two. Muramatsu said: “We are delighted to make people in Japan happy. There are a lot of Japanese darts players watching us back home so to win this match makes us very proud. “Austria have a very good team and it seemed unlikely that we could beat them before the game, but we proved what we can do.”
NEW women’s star Momo Zhou produced a decent display with Xiaochen Zong but there was no fairytale story ending to her big stage debut as they went down 5-2 to Switzerland having missed 21 missed darts at doubles. Veteran John Part rolled back the years with a fine performance to help Canada beat Italy 5-1, Spain’s Toni Alcinas hit a sensational 136 checkout to dump Russia while Australia also beat Hong Kong 5-1.
By Phil Lanning (@lannomedia)