The 22nd edition of the WDF World Cup was held in Cluj-Napoca in Romania. The Grand Hotel Italia is the venue from 7 to 12 October. All participant numbers records are broken. No less than 52 teams in the men’s competition, 46 ladies’ teams and 19 countries also sent their youth to Romania.
It will be a WDF World Cup without any incident which runs like clockwork and that is an incredible compliment to the organizing country that is itself relatively very small as a darts nation. No fewer than six new countries make their debut in Romania. Croatia, Egypt, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine are included for the first time.
There are not many surprises in the group stage of the team tournament. Russia does not survive its group because it loses to Croatia and Australia. And also Germany does not get through its group, they lose to Sweden and Ukraine. The biggest surprise, however, is the elimination of Ireland in the group stage. Canada and Hong Kong are too powerful for the Irish.
Hong Kong continues its good form in the knockout phase. Under the leadership of good-old Paul Lim, they beat Croatia, the United States, Serbia and, surprisingly, Nigel Heydon, Scott Mitchell, Daniel Day, Martin Atkins-Wigan from England in the semi-final. With this, Hong Kong ensures its first ever medal on an escalator. Wales will be the opponent in the final. The Welshmen beat Isle of Man, Australia, New Zealand and the strong Dutch quartet Jeffrey Sparidaans, Martijn Kleermaker, Chris Landman & Luc Peters in the semi-finals.
The final is an equal battle in which Jim Williams, Nick Kenny, David-Arwyn Morris & Darren Bingham from Wales always have the lead against Paul Lim, Royden Lam, Kai-Fan Leung & Hugo Leung from Hong Kong. Eventually Wales manages to pull that lead over the finish line. With 9-7 they add this title to their name. After the first edition in 1977 and a victory in 1997, this is the third time that Wales has won the team event.