From June 27 to June 30, the PDC World Cup of Darts is scheduled to take place in Frankfurt. England is one of 40 participating countries and is the top seed for the tournament. Can the English live up to the tag of pre tournament favourites?
The World Cup of Darts has become hugely popular since its first edition in 2010. The tournament started with 24 participating countries and has since grown: in 2014 the field of participants consisted of 32 countries, and as of last year it consisted of as many as 40 countries. At the same time, the format of the tournament has changed and now only pairs matches are played.
Since the inception of the PDC World Cup of Darts, England (like the Netherlands) has won the tournament no less than four times. In 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016, Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis managed to take the cup. In 2012, the duo nearly lost out in the second round against Canada. Both Taylor and Lewis lost their singles match, leaving them facing a 2-0 deficit. They eventually won the pair match 5-3 and won the sudden death to reach the quarterfinals. In the quarter and semifinals, they defeated the United States (3-1) and Wales (5-1), respectively. In the final, they faced Australia with Simon Whitlock and Paul Nicholson. England led 3-0 in the final and easily cruised to victory. However, Australia came back to 3-2 via Nicholson and the pairing, after which a sudden death had to be played to decide the final. In the end, Taylor and Lewis prevailed and walked away with the trophy.
The following year, Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis managed to retain their title for the first time. England easily got through the group stage by beating Japan (5-0) and Austria (5-2) and faced South Africa in the second round. The pair surprisingly struggled against the Africans but eventually managed to win 5-4 to advance to the quarterfinals, where another showdown awaited against Japan. Taylor won convincingly with 4-1 against Haruki Muramatsu but Lewis broke down against Sho Katsumi and lost 3-4. A deciding game was needed and was eventually won 4-2 by the English.
A duel with Wales was scheduled in the semifinals. Taylor won his match against Mark Webster (4-1), but once again it was Lewis who lost. Jackpot' went down 3-4 against Richie Burnett, making it another deciding pairs match. Again it was won by the English pair, this time 4-3. In the final England beat the Belgian Huybrechts brothers fairly easily, giving Taylor and Lewis the title for the second year in a row.
After losing to Michael van Gerwen and Raymond van Barneveld in 2014, Taylor were again too strong for the competition two years in a row in 2015 and 2016. In 2015, the duo did not lose a single match themselves until the final! Respectively Denmark (5-0), Japan (2-0), Germany (2-0) and Belgium (2-0) didn't stand a chance. In the final, however, the English faced more opposition. Phil Taylor won 4-0 against Peter Wright, but Gary Anderson managed to level the score by beating Adrian Lewis 4-1. The pairs match that followed went 4-3 to the English. However, Anderson equalized again by beating Taylor 4-1. But in the end, Lewis made sure England walked away with the title again with a 4-1 win over Wright.
In the 2016 final, the English faced the Netherlands. Van Gerwen and Van Barneveld led 1-2 after the pairs match and seemed to be on their way to the final victory. However, Taylor and Lewis both won their matches, sending the cup to England for the fourth time.
Between 2012 and 2016, Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis made up the English team at the World Cup of Darts. Since then, we have seen several duos on the oche, but none of them achieved as much success as Taylor and Lewis did back then. In 2017, Adrian Lewis played alongside Dave Chisnall. The duo managed to reach the semifinals, but both then lost their singles matches to Van Gerwen and Van Barneveld, respectively. The following year we saw Dave Chisnall again, but this time together with Rob Cross. This combination also proved unsuccessful, because in the quarterfinals they were defeated by the Belgian duo Dimitri van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts.
In 2019, we saw yet another composition. This time Rob Cross played together with Michael Smith. Although they won easily in the first round against the Philippines, the English were surprisingly eliminated in the second round against Ireland. The following year Cross and Smith tried again together, and this time with more success. The pair convincingly made it to the final, where they faced Welsh duo Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton. However, 'The Iceman' and 'The Ferret' proved far too strong for the Englishmen. Cross and Smith both lost their singles matches, and the pairs match was also lost.
In 2021, we saw another completely new pairing: James Wade and Dave Chisnall. Although it looked promising at first glance, England still surprisingly lost to Austria in the semifinals. The following year James Wade and Michael Smith got to try it together for once, but again the semifinals were the end of the line. This time Australia with Simon Whitlock and Damon Heta was too strong for the English. Last year we saw Michael Smith and Rob Cross on the stage together again. Although on paper they were the favourites prior to the tournament, they once again failed to live up to this role. In the quarterfinals, England surprisingly lost 8-3 to Germany.
So this year, with Luke Humphries and Michael Smith, we will again see a new pair with the English. On paper, England should again be one of the top favourites. Will Humphries and Smith manage to achieve success for England at the World Cup of Darts for the first time since 2016? We will see this coming weekend!
On paper and with the bookmakers, Michael Smith and Luke Humphries are the top favorites prior to the tournament. And that's no surprise, either. Humphries and Smith are ranked 1 and 3, respectively, on the PDC Order of Merit. This makes them by far the highest ranked pair. Only Gerwyn Price (4) and Jonny Clayton (10) are also both in the Top 10. England, like Wales, the Netherlands and Scotland, do not enter until the second round.
Besides England, Wales, with Price and Clayton mentioned earlier, and the Netherlands (Michael van Gerwen & Danny Noppert) are among the top favourites. However, these two countries are on the same side of the draw, so England would possibly only meet them in the final should they get this far. Luke Humphries and Michael Smith will thus start this tournament as a new pair, and in advance you would say that both men complement each other well. Both Smith and Humphries throw at a fast pace and are very strong scorers.
'Cool Hand Luke' (2024) and 'Bully Boy' (2023) are also the last two World Champions. In addition, Humphries won both the World Grand Prix, Grand Slam of Darts and the Players Championship Finals last year. This year he managed to reach the finals of the UK Open and the Premier League of Darts, however, both of these were lost against Dimitri van den Bergh and Luke Littler, respectively. Michael Smith, however, did not play in the final of a major after his win at the 2023 World Championship. He did still manage to reach the semifinals of both The Masters, World Grand Prix and the Premier League in 2023. So far in 2024, he only managed to win one Players Championship tournament in Niedernhausen.
So the question remains whether Humphries and Smith can live up to their favourites and will manage to achieve success for England at the World Cup of Darts for the first time since 2016. We will see this coming weekend!
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