Saturday, December 18, 2021
The Darts World Cup deserves that
Brilliant Borland flies through “Ally Pally”
From Kevin Schulte
The Darts World Cup is experiencing the first perfect game in front of an audience in a good six years. Debutant William Borland makes the audience at Alexandra Palace tremble with his nine-darter and afterwards speaks of “the best night of my life”.
A European Championship participation, two round of 16 at the Youth World Cup, world number 65. That’s all you had to know about William Borland before Friday evening. The 25-year-old Scot was only known to darts insiders. Until the evening of December 17th. Borland is celebrating its World Cup debut, and the 21-year-old Englishman Bradley Brooks is in a very exciting duel at a good level. It’s 2: 2 in the sets and 2: 2 in the legs. A World Cup first round match couldn’t be any closer.
Then Borland steps in, throwing a 180 at the best possible time. It’s only his third perfect shot in the whole match. Brooks is hardly impressed, stays in the game with a 134. But Borland throws three more perfect darts: Triple 20, Triple 20, Triple 19. 144 points remaining. Brooks now knows at the latest that he can no longer win the game as it progresses.
Borland, completely “on fire”, is in the tunnel, doesn’t think twice, just throws. Triple 20, Triple 20, Double 12. Nine-darters. The best possible game. The “Hole in One” of darts. Borland, completely in ecstasy, first starts to sprint in the direction of his appendix, breaks off, claps his opponent and then celebrates with the completely crazy audience.
In 28 years of World Cup history, there have only been ten perfect legs, the last one from James Wade during the “Ghost World Cup” a year ago. Appropriate for the empty Alexandra Palace and because Wade’s otherwise not going well, the gnarled Englishman didn’t even cheer.
This nine-darter from Borland and the cheering that followed was appropriate for the Darts World Cup. “This is the best night of my life. A nine is special in general, but a nine on the biggest stage of them all is a different level. Unbelievable,” said an ecstatic Borland after his memorable moment at “Ally Pally”.
Darts oldie Paul Lim also inspires “Ally Pally”
In the first game of the evening, the crowd favorite Paul Lim let the audience go from the saddle. The 67-year-old is traditionally the oldest participant in the tournament. His opponent Joe Murnan from England had no home advantage, but was only temporarily surprised in the worst quality game of the previous World Cup. Murnan won the game 3-2 in the end. To the annoyance of the public, who are hoping for another World Cup qualification for the Singaporean next year.
That evening, even the traditionally disguised 2020 world champion Peter Wright only had a supporting role. “Snakebite” defeated Ryan Meikle 3-0 and advanced to the third round of the World Cup. After appearing as Santa Claus two years ago and as “Grinch” the previous year, this time Wright came on stage in Alexandra Palace in a painted Christmas suit and with fairy lights and elf decorations. “I can play a lot better, but I’m just happy that I made it through. That’s the most important thing,” said the Scot, commenting on his opening success.
In the afternoon session of the third day of the tournament, the World Cup had shown that the tournament can also end early for the top seeded players: the Pole Krzystof Ratajski, number twelve in the world, surprisingly lost 3-1 against the Irish Steve Lennon.
Van Gerwen joins the tournament
Today’s fourth day of the World Cup is all about superstar Michael van Gerwen. The world number three takes effect late in the evening (approx. 11 p.m. German time) against the English debutant Chas Barstow in the tournament. “No game at the World Cup is easy. Maybe ten years ago, but not nowadays,” said “MvG” in the “Checkout” podcast in the run-up to the World Cup. In the meantime, every player can achieve an average of 95 points, which means that in principle everyone can win a World Cup game, so van Gerwen continues. William Borland showed on Friday evening that World Cup debutants can even play the perfect leg.