The last-16 of the 2013 World Cup of Darts produced some of the biggest shocks in recent dartistry. With all eight seeds easily winning their groups, it was perhaps hard to envision five of them failing to make it into the quarter finals. This included the favourites Netherlands as England look extremely odds on to win the World Cup for the second consecutive time.
But England, like last year, were almost ousted as South Africa missed two darts to win it. A 121-checkout from Charl Pietersen gave South Africa a 2-1 lead before the sides were level on 3-3. England finally took the lead for the first time in the match in the seventh leg but a 66-checkout on the bull from Pietersen forced a deciding leg. But Pietersen was guilty of missing those two doubles as Adrian Lewis hit double tops to put the champions through.
Netherlands haven't really produced anything like many were hoping and expecting and this continued against Finland. The Dutch did begin pretty good as they took a 2-0 lead after Finland missed three darts to take the second leg. But this didn't affect the Finns and they responded with seven perfect darts. They couldn't find the nine-darter but Jarkko Komula was able to hit a 52-checkout to pull a leg back. Finland then stunned Netherlands by taking the next three legs to go 4-2 ahead. Raymond Van Barneveld did pull a leg back but they couldn't muster a comeback as Komula found a round 50-checkout to provide the shock of the tournament so far.
One of the best players of the tournament has been Croatia's Robert Marijanovic. He again performed magically to help Croatia dump Northern Ireland out in the opening match of the night. A 124-checkout from Marijanovic in the second leg levelled the match before taking a 2-1 lead. Mickey Mansell has also been one of the most consistent players of the tournament and a 121-checkout levelled the match at 3-3. The Northern Irish missed five darts in the seventh leg before Marijanovic smashed a 120-checkout to go 4-3 ahead. Mansell forced a decider and the Northern Irish missed another three darts to win it and Marijanovic happily took the leg to win the match.
This was followed by the Republic of Ireland losing to Japan to set up a rematch against England. Japan found themselves 3-1 ahead before the Irish managed to level the match. But the Japanese remained unperturbed and regained momentum to take the following two legs to win the match 5-3.
The first seeds to go through to the quarter finals were Wales who produced a flawless performance against Canada. John Part won the opening leg before Mark Webster retaliated with a classy 120-checkout. Part again gave Canada the lead before Webster and Richie Burnett shared the next four legs to win the match 5-2. The most impressive statistic from the Welsh was that they didn't miss a dart at the double.
This good performance was followed a great doubles performance from the Belgians. The Huybrechts brothers were able to knock last year's runners-up out with a 5-1 victory and an impressive 101.08 average. Paul Nicholson managed to level the match at 1-1 before the Belgian brothers romped to victory to face Croatia in the next round.
Scotland were the other big team to lose in the second round in a repeat of the 2010 World Cup against Spain. Scotland looked in control for most of the match as they took a 3-1 lead. But Spain did respond to level the match before Scotland put themselves a leg away from victory. Robert Thornton missed a dart to put them through as Spain forced a decider before winning the final leg to force a rematch against Wales.
The hosts are also through to the quarter finals to play a rather tempestuous rematch against Finland. Poland posted their first leg of the match in the third before Andree Welge found a 122-checkout on the bull to put Germany 3-1 ahead. That soon became 4-1 and Germany had a glorious chance to win the game in the next but they missed nine darts to do so. But Germany recovered to take the seventh leg and cruise into the last eight.
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