The action continued this morning in Esbjerg, as the Americans continued their quest for Gold Medals in the team events.

The Men’s quartet faced the Czech Republic, something of an unknown quantity. The Czechs, however, were quickest out of the blocks, and were soon 3-0 up. Robbie Phillips stopped the rot, and the next six legs were split, each going with the darts.

A three-leg deficit soon became a four-leg deficit as Danny Lauby missed six darts from 48. We then closed the gap to just the one leg as Phillips (twice) and Bruce Robbins kicked it up a notch. It seemed we were finding our form at the right time, but it turned out to be too little, too late, as the Europeans wrapped it up 9-6.

Meanwhile, the Women were taking on Switzerland, and this was a tight one right from the start. The first four legs all went with the darts, so it was 2-2. Carolyn Mars then kept serve, and Cali West followed by breaking Jeannette Stoop to give us a two-leg advantage. This quickly disappeared as the Swiss levelled the score.

We regained the lead through Marlise Kiel, but lost it as Switzerland pocketed another brace. Paula Murphy then won against the throw, and West then put us back in front. With three legs left to go, it was still anybody’s game. Stoop beat Mars, and it was all-square again. This time, Murphy and Kiel found the doubles at the right time, and we had scraped through by a score of 9-7.

It certainly wasn’t going to get any easier from here, as we now faced England in the quarter-final!

From the first round of games, Paula Murphy was the only winner (against Deta Hedman), but at 3-1, we were still very much alive. Beau Greaves and Lorraine Winstanley made it 5-1, but Cali and Paula pulled us back to 5-3, and still just a solitary break down.

Well, that was as close as we were able to get, as the English squad cleaned up the next four, and our Women’s World Cup was over.

Now, we have to wait until later as Bruce Robbins takes his place in the Men’s Singles quarter-finals.

Full details from DartConnect

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