WDF World Cup Men Pairs 1991

WDF World Cup VIII was held from 2 till 5 October 1991 in the Dutch seaside town of Zandvoort. Not in a hotel or resort as is usually the case, but in the Gran Dorado bungalow holiday park. No less than 32 countries were present at the oche in the men’s event, which was a record. Five countries leave their ladies at home, but with 27 the upward trend is also maintained for the ladies. Among those 32 countries were five debuting countries; Russia, Luxembourg, Greece, Austria and the African Uganda.

The England men squad had plenty of choice in players and could even leave home this fabulous foursome: World Champion Dennis Priestley, number two in the world Mike Gregory, former world champion Bob Anderson and the 1989 Winmau World Masters Peter Evison. Of course, the big question was which country could prevent the English team of claiming their seventh consecutive overall title.

In the pairs tournament no English pair reaches the semi-finals, something that had never happened before at a WDF World Cup. The duo Alan Warriner and Phil Taylor lost 4-0 in the first round to the Finns Kexi Heinaharju and Aulis Nissinen. The ‘royal’ pairing of John Lowe and Eric Bristow, who had dominated the pairs event since 1977 (sevenfold finalists and six times WDF World Cup champions pairs), lost 4-1 in the quarter finals to the Australians Keith Sullivan and Wayne Weening.

Both England beating duos proceeded to the semi-finals. The Aussies faced the Welsh pair Eric Burden and Martin Phillips, with a 4-0 win they qualified easily for the final. The Finnish duo lost a thrilling semi-final Belgian pair Frans Devooght and Jean-Marie Dejonghe. Belgium was 3-2 up when Devooght was given the opportunity to finish from 40. However, the tension was so high that Frans made a mistake. He finished 97, the previous score of Jean Marie. The Finns made good use of this and levelled at 3-3. Fortunately, Devooght and Dejonghe were not off balance too much by this and still won the last leg thus reaching the final.

In the final the Australians took a 1-0 lead in 17 darts. The Belgian pair responded with two 14 dart legs to take the lead at 2-1. The Aussies still went on to win the match by taking the next three legs in 17, 21 and 15 darts. Thus, Keith Sullivan and Wayne Weening became the first non-English WDF World Cup Pairs Champions.

WDF World Cup Men Pairs

About WDF World Cup Men Pairs 1991

Competitors Of WDF World Cup Men Pairs 1991

Øyvind Aasland

James Abili

Jonathan Adderley

Alberto-Babet Andrada

Albert Anstey

Wayne Atkins

The-Ah Bah

Beat Basler

Eric Bristow-MBE

Marcello Buess

Eric Burden

Larry Butler

Domenico Callegari

Bruno Capaldi

Joel Chartier

Salvador Comas

Gaudenz Coray

Mitchell Crooks

Stephane Dalancon

Frans De Vooght

Alfredo Deen

Wilson Downes

John Dunne

Yuya Evans

Arild Folgerø

Jozef Fraczek

Roland Fraiture

Mauri Hakkala

Jamie Harvey

Kexi Heinaharju

Reydar Henningsson

Heikki Hermunen

Jann Hoffmann

Tony Holyoake

Rudolf Hristovski

Reynaldo Ilagan

Rickard Johansson

Chris Johns

Alex Kavisi

David Keery

Allen Kingston

Dirk-Jan Klaver

Andreas Krockel

Fedor Kulakov

Bruno Ladovaz

Yin-Koi Lam

Leo Laurens

Kosta Lavassas

Greg Lazaruk

Jean-Luc Leclercq

Paul Lim

Ake Loow

Pedro Lopez

Russ Lopez

John Lowe

Peter Masson

Akis Mavrogalos

Pias Mbwera

Jack McKenna

Gust Mees

Moses Minani

Pete Mitchell

Rudi Moe

Pedro Montero

Tony Moree

Neville Moss

Antonio Muñoz-Ramos

John-Mugo Munyui

Sayid Nasiruddin

Ben Naude

Robert Ngirigacha

Knud Nilsen

Aulis Nissinen

Stephen Nyandoko

John Nyingi-Macharia

John-Joe O'Shea

Leif Øhrling