World Cup

The full results for the 2007 World Cup XVI can be found on the WDF page www.dartswdf.com

Pictures from the World Cup 2007

Going into the 2007 World Cup we knew it would be competitive in all the sections, the days of total domination by one Country have now gone as the top players in many of the Countries are more than capable of pulling off a victory against an established player.

Here is a brief review of the England players.

Youths

Harriet Wolton reached the final of the girls singles and looked in great shape to take the gold medal but missed doubles in the first leg saw her opponent gain confidence and Harriet had to settle for a silver medal. in the semi-final she beat the hosts Thea Kaaijk (2006 Winmau World Youth runner up) and this was after a quarter final win over Jenny Lieverkus of Germany, this avenged a defeat against Jenny in the final of the Europe Cup Youth championship.

Ricky Evans reached the semi final of the boy's singles where he lost 2 - 3 to the eventual champion, Tibor Tax of Hungary, this was after a quarter final win over one of the pre-tournament favourites, Mitchell Clegg of Australia.

In the mixed pairs Harriet & Ricky eased through their round robin group unbeaten before eventually losing 2 -3 to the eventual champions in the semi finals.

So they returned home with two silver and two bronze medals.

Ladies

The Ladies of Trina Gulliver and Apylee Jones would have started the tournament amongst the favourites but they just did not get going at all with Apylee losing in the last 32 to Francis Lawson (Scotland) and Trina going out in the last 16 to Maud Jansson (Sweden).

In the pairs they reached the last 16 before going out to the Republic of Ireland.

Men

In the singles the best performance came from Steve Farmer who lost in the quarter finals to Mario Robbe (Holland), Martin Adams lost in the last 16 to eventual runner up Robert Wagner (Norway), whilst Tony O'Shea and John Walton lost at the last 64 to Rune David (Norway) and eventual champion, Mark Webster (Wales) respectively.

In the pairs Martin Adams & John Walton lost in the semi-final against Mario Robbe & Joey ten Berge (Holland) with Tony O'Shea & Steve Farmer going out in the last 64 to semi finalists Martin Phillips & Wayne Warren (Wales).

The team event was to prove to be the highlight of the World Cup for England as the four man team eased through their group with wins over Greece 9 - 2, Gibraltar 9 - 1, Republic of Ireland 9 - 4 and Germany 9 - 2, this set up a last 16 clash with Denmark which they won 9 - 3. Our opponents in the quarter-finals were Scotland and in a close match we trailled 6 - 8 before wins from Steve Farmer and John Walton set up a deciding leg shoot out. Scotland chose Mike Veitch and England chose Tony O'Shea and it was Tony who secured a place in the semi-finals for England. The semi-finals were played on stage and a place was eventually secured in the final with a close 9 - 7 victory over the USA.

At the start of the finals day victory for the team could still secure the overall title but a win for the Dutch players in the pairs meant that the overall title was Holland's before the four man final closed off World Cup XVI.

It was a matter of pride for the men now and they drew on the strength that they had already beaten Holland twice in a similar format on their way to victory in the 6 Nations tournament played in Holland last February. With the format being the cut throat one leg game Holland drew first blood as they took the fist leg against the darts (Martin Adams losing), the next nine legs went with the throw before Martin Adams won against the darts to level the score at five each. The next four legs went with the throw again to leave the score seven each.

At this point Holland took the 15th leg against the darts to put themselves on the brink of victory but once again John Walton saved the day for England as he took the final leg against Niels de Ruiter against the darts. So the gold medal would be decided in a sudden death leg between Joey ten Berge and Martin Adams, Martin won the bullseye for first throw but an inspired Joey soared ahead and the title looked destined for the Dutch, but 10 missed darts at a winning double for Joey proved costly when Martin hit double four to secure the gold medal for the England four man team.

To show how the medals were spread we have made up the following table

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
	4	2	3	9
	1	3	3	7
	3	1	2	6
	1	1	1	3
	1	1		2
		1	1	2
		1	1	2
			2	2
			2	2
	1			1
		1		1
			1	1
			1	1
			1	1
Northern Ireland			1	1

As you can see from a total of 41 possible medals they were shared between 15 different Countries, and these Countries represented 4 different Continents (Europe, Australasia, Asia & North America), showing that darts really is a worldwide sport.

To further emphasis the spread of the competing nations, in the ladies singles the last eight players represented seven different Countries and in the men's singles all the last eight players represented different Countries, When the two events are put together tit shows there were 13 Countries who had players in the last eight of the respective ladies and men's singles all playing for at least a bronze medal.

The World Cup has been a very successful event for England since it's inception in 1977, when the first World Cup was held in England for the one and only time, following are the details of all players who have taken Gold Medals for England in the past World Cups.

In the World Cup, staged in Switzerland in 1995, England took every possible Gold medal (Ladies, Men's & Overall) available, this is still the only time this feat has ever been achieved in World Cup history.