Thursday, December 16, 2021
World Cup kick-off in the “Ally Pally”
Booed darts champion turns up late
From Kevin Schulte
The defending champion is booed, is initially impressed by it, but is there in the crucial moments. Gerwyn Price wins at the beginning of the Darts World Cup with difficulty against Ritchie Edhouse. Ex-superstar Adrian Lewis is looking forward to the new edition of a World Cup final.
It’s moments like these that distinguish a semi-professional outsider from the best player in the world. Gerwyn Price, 36 years old, formerly a rugby professional, now number one and reigning world champion in darts, is experiencing a tough start to the “mission to defend the title”. Against Ritchie Edhouse, number 80 in the world, the “Iceman” loses the first set of his second round encounter with 0: 3 legs. The boos, which the polarizing Welshman in London’s Alexandra Palace gets from the audience as he walks on stage, initially leave their mark on the Welshman. Edhouse takes almost every chance, almost nothing works at Price.
When the score was 2-2 legs in set two, the title holder then ignited the turbo for the first time. The decision leg is Price’s first show of power. In the right moment. When it comes down to not falling behind with 0-2 sets and about to end before the tournament has even really started. Price wins the set, equalizes, but has to continue shaking.
Edhouse takes the lead 2-0 in the third set and a little later, when the score is 2-2, he has a legitimate chance of winning his second set. But Price ignites the turbo again. 130-point checkout with three darts. He places the crucial one in the heart of the dartboard, the tiny bull’s eye in the middle.
The will of the outsider Edhouse is broken. Price makes short work in set four and wins 3-0. The first match dart is sitting right away. 130-point checkout with three darts. Triple 20, single 20, bulls-eye. “These two 130 checkouts brought me the win. In the end I played really well. In the first set I missed too many doubles and put myself under too much pressure,” said Price after the hard-fought win at Sky Sports “. Price, who was one of the top 32 seeded players to receive a bye for the first round, will only return to the “Ally Pally” after the Christmas break on December 27th.
Ex-world champion Lewis is looking forward to a gigantic duel
Day 1 – Results (world rankings in brackets)
Round 1
(80) Ritchie Edhouse 3-2 Peter Hudson (128)
(40) Ricky Evans 3-0 Nitin Kumar (no placement)
(35) Adrian Lewis 3-1 Matt Campbell (137)
round 2
(1) Gerwyn Price 3-1 Ritchie Edhouse (80)
On the opening evening, the deeply fallen world champion of 2011 and 2012, Adrian Lewis, had previously registered claims for a World Cup surprise with a strong 3-1 win over Canadian Matt Campbell. “Jackpot” lost its first win, but fought its way back into the game at a level almost similar to Price and earned a deserved win in the end.
The reward earned is a second round match against Gary Anderson late this Thursday evening. “That was a tough game. It took me a while to get used to it. I can’t wait to play against Gary now,” said Lewis at Sky Sports. The game Anderson against Lewis has already taken place twice in the World Cup final: Lewis won in 2011 and Anderson in 2016.
With Ricky Evans, another Englishman qualified for the second round on the first evening. “Rapid” is considered to be one of the fastest throwers of all. But that’s not the only reason why his appearance against Indian Nitin Kumar was by far the shortest game of the evening: Evans only lost 2 legs in a 3-0 set win. Because the crowd’s darling cheered after the last dart in the style of Cristiano Ronaldo, the Manchester United fan got a short “Boo” from the London audience. But that couldn’t be compared with the expressions of displeasure against Price.
16-year-old German celebrates debut
On the second day of the World Cup, in addition to the classic between Anderson and Lewis, the World Cup final today will also focus on the appearance of the 16-year-old German Fabian Schmutzler. The Hessian plays in the second match of the evening session from around 9 p.m. German time against the Englishman Ryan Meikle. If Schmutzler wins, he would be the youngest individual winner in the history of the tournament and would meet the Scottish ex-world champion Peter Wright on Friday evening. “That would be awesome”, “Fabolous Fab” had said before the tournament in the “Checkout” podcast.