Hamburg welcomes 24 nations as the second Cash Converters World Cup of Darts got under-way today. The Friday afternoon session saw the start of the first round which featured the unseeded sides. The first match saw Canada take on Hungary. Three-time World Champion John Part teamed up with Ken MacNeil to take on the Hungarian pairing, Nandor Bezzeg and Kristian Kaufmann. The first round consists of a doubles format in a race to five legs.
The favourites were Canada with Part expected to carry them through. But it was a slow to start to the match with 14 missed doubles before Part hit double one to take the lead. It took Kaufmann just two darts to level the match with an 84-checkout. The next two legs followed suit with Part taking the double to make it 2-1 before Kaufmann again equalised. The format states that the loser of the previous leg throws first in the next, this will prove matches to be close which was why Bezzeg was able to equalise again for Hungary at 3-3. Part's class came through to checkout 117 to win the match 5-3 and progress to face tournament favourites England in the next round. Hungary scouting report: Bezzeg the better scorer but Kaufmann finished more consistently.
The second match of the afternoon saw William O'Connor and Mick McGowan of the Republic of Ireland take on Lee Choon Peng and Amin Bin Abdul Ghani of Malaysia. The Irish pairing were the favourites with O'Connor supposedly destined for an illustrious career. Choon Peng kicked the game off, against the throw, with an impressive 120-Shanghai checkout. Ghani secured the first 180 of the tournament before following it up with a 140 on his next throw, Choon Peng hit double four to take a 2-1 lead. O'Connor found a 107 checkout to turn the match around, taking a 3-2 lead. From there, there was only going to be one winner and Ireland wasted no time in winning the match 5-2 to go onto face Australia in round two. Malaysia scouting report: both players had sparks of quality with Choon Peng looking slightly better, but neither player had enough consistency to cause any real problems.
USA faced Philippines in the third match of the first round. Darin Young and Gary Mawson are the representatives from across the pond with Christian Perez and Lourence Ilagan representing the Asian nation. It took the Philippines until the back end of the second leg to register a score of over 100 but they did remain level at 1-1. They improved from there and managed to keep level at 2-2 with Perez scoring well. But the USA's experience shone through to take a 4-2 lead and Mawson secured the final double top to win 5-2, they will face hosts Germany in round two. Philippines scouting report: again both players showed glimpses of quality after taking a while to get into it.
Perhaps one of the closest matches on paper, Mensur Suljovic and Dietmar Burger of Austria faced Warren French and Preston Ridd of New Zealand in game four. Austria were probably just about favourites courtesy of Suljovic but he couldn't prevent French from taking the first leg after countless missed doubles. Suljovic did take a 112 checkout to turn it around to give Austria a 2-1 lead. French managed to find a ton checkout to pull the score back to 3-2 when it looked like Austria were going to run away with it. This was followed up by a 126 by Burger to put Austria just one leg away. The Kiwis did keep the fight up but Austria went onto win 5-3 and will face reigning champions Holland in round two.
Morihiro Hashimoto became a crowd favourite when he appeared at the World Championships two years ago. His Japanese team-mate, Haruki Muramatsu, faced Swedish opponent, Dennis Nilsson, in this year's World Championship preliminary round with the Japanese winning 4-2. Nilsson's team-mate, Magnus Caris, started the first leg with a 180 and finished it with double eight. But Japan weren't perturbed and remained level at 2-2. But once again experience prevailed, Sweden going onto win 5-2 to face Belgium.
The surprise package of last year's World Cup, Spain, took on South Africa in the best looking tie of the first round. Devon Petersen was one of the unknown quantities at the World Championships and he teamed up with Shawn Hogan to face semi-finalists Antonio Alcinas and Carlos Rodriguez. There was nothing between them as they were locked at 2-2. Alcinas and Petersen were well matched but Hogan appeared to play a lot better then Rodriguez and this helped the South Africans to win 5-2 and will face Scotland in the second round.
The penultimate match of the afternoon saw Finland take on Croatia. Petri Korte was arguably the most well-known name of the quartet as he and Marko Kantele took on Croatia's Boris Krcmar and Tonci Restovic. Krcmar came flying out of the blocks as he secured a 135 check-out to win the first leg. The Croatians then took a surprise 3-1 lead before Finland fought back to force the first deciding leg of the tournament. Both teams missed doubles throughout the match and the final was no different, but Croatia managed to get that all important double to go through to face Wales.
The final first round match was between Gibraltar and Denmark. Per Laursen was by far the most experienced of the players and along with Jann Hoffmann, this made the Danes the favourites. But Dylan Duo and Dyson Parody didn't let that affect them as they took a 2-0 lead. Denmark quickly levelled and another deciding leg was forced. Gibraltar were the first to get to the final double but couldn't capitalise, Laursen picked off double tops to win the game for Denmark without ever taking the lead during the match. They will face Northern Ireland in the second round.
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