The ninth WDF World Cup is played for the second time in the largest gambling city of the world; Las Vegas. In 1979 WDF World Cup II was also held there, back then with only men's teams. Just like two years ago in Zandvoort Netherlands, there were 32 countries in the men’s competition. In the ladies, 26 countries started for their sixth WDF World Cup Darts.
Traditionally, there are relatively many Caribbean countries when playing in North America. There are also three debuting countries; The Czech Republic, Hungary and South Africa have joined the WDF World Cup family. The Sahara Hotel is the place to be from 13 to 16 October, just like 14 years ago. That does not apply to a lot of trusted names. This WDF World Cup goes down in history as the first after the split, with a large number of top players having set up their own darts association, later known as the PDC.
In the singles the English ladies were eliminated early. The two American ladies stole the show as they both reached the semi-finals. In those semi-finals Stacy Bromberg had a 4-0 over Norwegian Karin Nordhal, the very slow throwing Kathy Maloney also won, 4-1 against Northern Ireland’s Rhonda Henry.
A very enthusiastic crowd followed the All-American final. The contest was very evenly matched with very impressive darts. The level was often even better than that of the men's final. Maloney won the fifth leg in 15 darts with a 141 finish and took a 3-2 lead. Yet Bromberg came back, her first 12 darts in the sixth leg; 140, 125, 100 and 82 leaving 54. However, she would not get a chance at it as Maloney had begun the leg and scored 140, 100, 55, 150 and a 66 finish. Kathy Maloney was the third lady from the USA who won the WDF World Cup singles after she already had been runner-up six years back.