After the initial schedule had been published, the WDF revised the schedule so that Opening Day saw the Women’s Singles, Men’s Pairs, Boys Singles, and Girls Pairs.

In the Girls Pairs, Cyndi Kelley and Kellie-May Buzzell were drawn in a tough five team group. Despite their best efforts, the winning doubles were hard to come by, and they failed to make it out of the group. The highly-fancied Irish pairing of Rebecca Allen and Christina Byrne topped the Group D table.

The Boys singles was being played at the same time, and sadly, it was a similar story. Kaden Anderson posted a very impressive overall average of almost 70 ppd, but also struggled to find the winning doubles. As a result, he was pushed into third place in Group B. The same with Seth Patenaude. He recorded a nice win against Sweden’s Ville Jansson, but that was never going to be enough to see him negotiate the group stage.

On to the Men’s Pairs, and Danny Lauby and Bruce Robbins were faced with a tough opener against the Dutch pairing of Wesley Plaisier and Berry van Peer. It turned out to be just as tough as they expected. After forging an early 2-1 lead, the Americans were stunned as their opponents hit back to take the last three legs, including a 14-darter, and an even better 11-darter for the match.

Joe Chaney and Robbie Phillips opened their account with a tidy 4-1 victory against Romania, only to be edged out by Scotland’s Danny Trueman and Davie Kirwan. At 2-2, the match was finely poised, but missed doubles in the next two legs allowed the Scots in to advance to the Top 32.

So, that just leaves the Women’s Singles…

Cali West had a tricky first-round tie against Rhian O’Sullivan (Wales). Tricky is just how it turned out, and again, we saw a 2-1 advantage turned into a loss as Rhian found some devastating consistency over the last three legs.

No such problems for Carolyn Mars, as she reached the second round without dropping a leg. Jersey’s Hope Hopwood only managed to leave an out in one of the four legs, as the girl from Massachusetts drew on her vast experience.

A slow start in her second match proved too big a hurdle, and Carolyn lost 401 to Spain’s Mila Martinez.

Cleveland’s Marlise Kiel joined the action in the last 128, but after a closely-fought seven legger, exited the event at the same stage. Belgium’s Katy Clays took the first two, only for Marlise to level the score. Again Clarys grabbed the lead, but it was soon 3-3. The Belgian had the throw in the decider, and that was to prove crucial as she held her serve to advance.

That leaves the evergreen Paula Murphy. A fine display first time out saw her rebound from a 2-1 deficit to claim a 4-2 win over Northern Ireland’s Anna Madigan. Next time out, it was a similar story – with a similar scoreline – and Paula had seen off Japan’s Kiyo Shimizu.

Her next was a toughie – against Ireland’s Robyn Byrne. You wouldn’t have thought so, as Paula finished 100 in two darts to capture the first leg. It was soon 2-0, and a pretty 15-darter made it 3-0. Robyn wasn’t finished yet, and posted a 180 on her way to closing the gap. Still, one more leg was all that was needed, and Paula was in the last 16.

Here she met Anca Zijlstra (Netherlands). Like Paula, Anca has a ton of experience. Paula started out strong, posting 100, 140, 140 in her first nine darts. She won that leg. Anca stepped up a gear, and took the next three legs. Aided by a maximum 180 and a 140, Paula made it 3-2 with a 16-darter. We were looking for a grandstand finish, but it wasn’t to be, and the sixth and winning leg went to the girl from Heerlen.

So, the day is done. Let’s hope for better results tomorrow!

Full details from DartConnect

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