From October 22 to 24, 1987, the sixth WDF World Cup was played at the Vally Sport Complex in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Twenty-three countries participate in the competition. The New Zealand team brought no less than 200 supporters and before the competition started the “Maori” presented their famous "Haka" war dance as a warm-up.
With 23 countries making the trip to Denmark, a new record is set, the 21 women's teams are also a record. Italy, Spain and Switzerland make their debut at a WDF World Cup.
In the team event there was already a clash between John Lowe, Eric Bristow, Cliff Lazarenko & Bob Anderson on behalf of England and the Wales team of Leighton Rees, Alan Evans, Peter Locke & Malcolm Davies in the second round, a battle that the English would win 9-6. The English squad then also progessed to the semi-finals where they beat the Canadian squad of Bob Sinnaeve, Avtar Gill, Joe Gorski & Danny MacInnis, 9-4.
In the other semi-final, it is the surprising Belgians Felix Smout, Bob Renard, Johnny Deley & Marcel Meskens who compete against the Northern Ireland team of Raymond Farrell, Fred McMullan, Charlie Maxwell & Louis Doherty. Belgium had successively beaten the Netherlands 9-4, Switzerland 9-3 and Scotland 9-6. Northern Ireland was just a bit too strong for the Belgian team, in an exciting duel in front of the TV cameras. Northern Ireland took the win with a 9-7 score.
The final was a nail biter, in which England took the title 9-8 in the seventeenth and decisive leg. Nobody gave Northern Ireland much chance to win from the English team beforehand. In March, England best Northern Ireland 9-0 in the Nations Cup. The England team were poised on a swift victory and started strongly as they took a nice lead of 5-1. Ray Farrell brought the Northern Irish back into the game with a 16-darter and promptly the next five legs also went to Northern Ireland, so that now they were in the lead. England twice came back to draw, but each time the Northern Irish took the lead again. With the score 7-8 in favour of the Northern Irish, the two captains of the team John Lowe and Ray Farrell played each other. Ray got a chance to take the title but missed out on double 16. Lowe did not let this opportunity slip away and squared the game once again. In the deciding leg both teams chose to re-send their captains on stage. A confident Lowe, who has been successful in these situations before, hits 140-100-140-89 and leaves double 16. Farrell puts three scores of 100 against this and a score of 60 which leaves him on141. However, that does not matter anymore, John Lowe finished with his thirteenth dart and captured the title for England.
John Lowe, Eric Bristow, Cliff Lazarenko & Bob Anderson take the team gold for England for the fourth time, a title that they had to concede to the USA two years before.