The world number one trembles in the next round, a Canadian debutant celebrates too early and an American becomes the new favorite of the fans in London's Alexandra Palace. That's how the fifth day at the Darts World Cup went.
"USA, USA, USA" chanted the mostly British darts fans on Monday evening at the World Cup in "Ally Pally". A moment that best describes the fascination of the Darts World Cup. Leonard Gates, 52, from Texas, is making his London debut. And he enjoys, no, he celebrates this moment. Gates dances onto the stage to the music of James Brown.
Viewers appreciate the positive and contagious nature of the American. It is immediately clear that Gates has a home game tonight. His opponent, young Dutchman Geert Nentjes, is almost to be pitied. Although the 24-year-old grabs the first sentence a bit happily at first, Nentjes then seems increasingly unsettled. Leonard Gates, on the other hand, fought his way back into the game with the support of the 3,000 fans and equalized to make it 1-1. From then on, the "Ally Pally" is electrified. Again and again the "USA" calls go through the hall. In the final stages of the game, Gates is the better man. Nentjes resigns and plays so indisposed that Gates can afford to miss seven match darts and still win 3-1.
"It was the most exhilarating experience of my life. Anyone who wants to experience something should come here. I'm from America, I'm in a different country here and the fans are chanting 'USA'. It doesn't matter where you're from here. I can I can't describe how I feel. It was just fantastic," Gates said afterwards in an interview with Sport1.
In round two, the winner of the North American Championship meets Stephen Bunting from England on Wednesday. Gates is a clear outsider in the duel with the 2021 World Cup semi-finalists, but maybe he will be infected again by the intoxicating atmosphere of "Ally Pally".
On the fifth evening of the tournament, after the Gates game, another North American takes center stage. David Cameron, a 53-year-old Canadian and not to be confused with the former British Prime Minister of the same name, is one dart away from elimination against the Englishman Ritchie Edhouse with a score of 2-0 in sets and 2-0 in legs. But Edhouse misses match dart number one, letting Cameron go 2-1 in the third set and soon missing match darts two, three, four, five and six. Cameron still wins the round and two more set wins follow.
In the end, the World Cup debutant can even allow himself to celebrate too early. Cameron leads 2-0 in the decider, 92 points from victory. With the first two darts, the Canadian plays his way down to 50 points in his recording. Cameron has his first match dart, must hit the bullseye in the middle of the dartboard. But the dart lands high up in the double 20 field. Cameron cheers, turning to face his opponent. Until he realizes a split second later that he has miscalculated. 82 instead of 92 points. Edhouse is able to capitalize on the faux pas, but Cameron closes the sack a leg later, completing his insane comeback.
It's less exciting, but just as successful for the world number one on Monday evening. Gerwyn Price defeated Luke Woodhouse 3-1 in the final game of the night. After a stuttering start - Woodhouse surprisingly takes the lead - Price shows nerves of steel. After equalizing the set, he dictates the game, while outsider Woodhouse can no longer take advantage of the few chances he had in the opening phase. "I put myself under a lot of pressure. Now I'm just glad I got through this game," Price said afterwards on "Sky Sports".
The Welshman needs to win the Darts World Championship for the second time since 2021 to retain world number one status. He also has to hope that 2022 champion Peter Wright is eliminated before the semifinals. "I'm defending a lot of ranking points, so I had to get through that first game," Price said.
By ranking points, the Welshman simply means money. The world ranking list of the professional dart organization PDC is calculated according to the prize money within two years. Price currently ranks at over £1.1million. But £500,000 alone resulted from his World Cup triumph in January 2021. Price "defended" this prize money. If the polarizing "Iceman" retires early, he falls to fourth place.
In the round of 32, Price could face a cracker: If Raymond van Barneveld wins against Englishman Ryan Meikle on Tuesday evening, the five-time world champion would meet Price on December 27th. Van Barneveld won the last two games between the two at the Grand Slam of Darts in November. But "Barney" should watch out for Meikle first. The Englishman has developed well in the past two years and can certainly pose a threat to the Dutchman.
The second highlight on tournament day six is Fallon Sherrock's appearance. The 28-year-old wrote darts history three years ago in "Ally Pally" when she became the first woman to throw two men out of the tournament. No other player has done that since. This year, the other two women in the field of participants have already been eliminated.
Sherrock is only an outsider against her 32-year-old compatriot Ricky Evans. Her form isn't the best and her World Cup "qualification" was greeted with much ado. The Englishwoman didn't even qualify this year. Only when the PDC awarded the last free World Championship place to the winner of the Women's World Matchplay shortly before the start of the tournament, Sherrock could still be happy.
(This article was first published on Tuesday, December 20, 2022.)
