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.
With the return of England in the team tournament, they immediately win the tournament in again. In the group stage no team wins more than three legs from the English ladies. In the knock-out phase, England is having a hard time with the Scottish ladies in the last 16. It will be 9-6 for England, which is then warmed up and easily beats Wales (9-2) and Canada (9-1).
Australia is the opponent in the final. They beat Russia (9-6), Switzerland (9-8) and in the semi-final Sweden (9-1). In the final, Australia is on the backfoot quickly and the gap is never closed. The final score is 9-4 to the English ladies and with that they win the team event for the second time, every time they participated.
There were some surprises in the pool phase. Title defender Netherlands does not survive the group stage. But also Finland, Denmark, Germany and Northern Ireland do not reach the knockout phase. The bronze medals are for Canada and Sweden.