Lots of show, no performance
“Terrible” Peter Wright fails at the Darts World Cup
December 21, 2023, 12:03 a.m
Rarely before has a former champion and world number one been eliminated from the Darts World Cup in such a crash: Peter Wright has to travel home after his opening game. The Scot had no chance against semi-professional Jim Williams.
The two-time darts world champion Peter Wright said goodbye to the World Cup in London after his first game. After a terrible performance, “Snakebite” lost 3-0 to Welsh semi-professional Jim Williams. The 53-year-old Wright put on a big show just before the game, when he came on stage with green hair and a Christmas shirt and jumped around the stage with cheerleader pompoms.
On the screen, the Scot’s performance looked anything but good. Wright missed numerous chances to equalize the sets at 1-1 in the second round and then seemed broken. Numerous dart changes didn’t help either, but only seemed to further unsettle the 2020 and 2022 world champion. A few minutes later the game was over and the number four seed was eliminated with a crash. Wright – reigning European champion – is the second seeded player to be eliminated from the World Cup after England’s James Wade.
“To be honest, I don’t know what happened. I have no idea, training went well,” said Wright, commenting on his crushing defeat. “Maybe if I had hit one of the doubles to win the second set it would have been a different game. I just played terribly tonight.”
16-year-old makes a big impression
Before Wright’s appearance, which was considered the highlight of the sixth day of competition, former European champion Ross Smith secured a third round ticket. Smith defeated Dutchman Niels Zonneveld 3-1. But the most convincing performance was Junior World Champion Luke Littler. The 16-year-old Englishman celebrated a fantastic debut in “Ally Pally”. The 16-year-old clearly defeated former amateur world champion Christian Kist 3-0. “I can’t believe I did this on my debut. This is the greatest thing in my career,” Littler said in an interview.
German players were not in action on Wednesday. Gabriel Clemens will be called upon for the first time on Thursday (10 p.m./Dazn and Sport1). The semi-finalist of the last World Cup meets Man Lok Leung from Hong Kong. Martin Schindler, Ricardo Pietreczko and Florian Hempel are also still there in the second round of the World Cup.