Peter Wright has managed to win another major tournament after eight defeats in a row. The Scot put in an energetic performance. The fact that he still had to tremble after a 2-0 lead was entirely due to the DJ in Alexandra Palace.
It didn’t take much for the “Queen of the Palace” to take over the reign of Alexandra Palace again. Fallon Sherrock, who made history five years ago when she became the first and, to date, only woman to defeat a man in a world championship match, was not far away from moving back into the second round of the World Darts Championship. In her opening match against Ryan Meikle she made it into the decisive fifth set and after the 3:2 in round four the momentum was on her side.
At the beginning of the final set there was an immediate opportunity to ride the wave. She had two darts in her hands for the early break, but missed both attempts on double 20. It was a close race in which first Meikle, then Sherrock and finally Meikle again barely managed to get their throws through. Until the fourth leg, which the 30-year-old started but didn’t finish – and Meikle, with strong nerves, won the duel between the trained hairdressers. This means that both women participating in London once again failed early despite an acceptable performance.
Her partner had already been eliminated from the tournament on Monday evening after an emotional drama. Cameron Menzies finished his first round match against American Leonard Gates in tears and lost 1:3 (0:3, 3:2, 0:3, 2:3). As well as the crowd’s boos and disappointment at his poor performance, the Scot struggled with thoughts of his father, who had undergone surgery following health problems.
Peter Wright’s thoughts on his daughter
Peter Wright has also been struggling with his physical and mental condition for years. The 2020 and 2022 world champion intervened in the World Cup on Tuesday evening and, unlike twelve months ago, was at least able to prevent elimination before Christmas. “Snakebite” beat Dutchman Wesley Plaisier 3-1, but at one point threatened to lose a 2-0 lead.
Wright is having the worst year of his career. After the opening defeat at the 2024 World Cup, he finished last in the Premier League. At the UK Open he made it to the round of 16 again, otherwise in 2024 all important tournaments ended immediately after the first round. Recently, due to his miserable scoring, he sometimes didn’t even make it to the double fields.
He suffered a total of eight defeats in a row in major ranking tournaments. The 54-year-old decided not to wear an opulent costume this time and instead appeared extremely tense. “I’m nervous,” admitted the Scot before his start. However, there was no trace of despondency: Alexandra Palace experienced perhaps the most emotional and combative Peter Wright that there has ever been at the start of a World Cup.
His opponent had already ended the career of another darts legend with his victory in the first round against the Japanese Ryusei Azemoto and completed the loss of Simon Whitlock’s tour card. The number 73 also proved to be a stubborn opponent against Wright for long stretches, but was unable to control his nerves in the crucial situations.
Wright won two narrow 3-2 sets, but also benefited from the fact that his opponent missed eight set darts in the second round. After Plaisier checked 136 points to make it 3-0 in the third set, the trend reversal seemed complete. The Dutchman was the better player, broke Wright to make it 1-0, but was then unable to convert two set darts on double 8 and thus enabled the double world champion to win.
“I missed you all,” said Wright at the subsequent media conference, to which players at the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) are only obliged to attend after victories. “I had everything under control until I lost it again,” said a slightly distraught Wright, providing a surprising explanation for the turnaround after the first two sentences.
“It was the fault of the guys who were responsible for the music during the break. You played Robbie Williams: ‘Angels’. I like the song, but my daughter always sang it. And that’s why it completely took me out. Good thing I managed to do it after all. Thanks to the fans, they carried me through the entire match.”
Unless Lutz Wöckener is just anyone Sport in self-experimentation tried it out, he writes about darts and sports politics, but sometimes also something off-kilter like football.
Darts World Cup, results, December 17th
1. Round
James Hurrell (ENG) – Jim Long (CAN) 3:0 (3:0; 3:1, 3:0)
Kevin Doets (NED) – Noa-Lynn van Leuven (NED) 3:1 (1:3, 3:1, 3:1, 3:2)
Ryan Joyce (ENG) – Darius Labanauskas (LIT) 3:1 (3:0, 0:3, 3:1, 3:1)
Jeffrey de Graaf (NED) – Rashad Sweeting (BAH) 3:1 (1:3, 3:2, 3:0, 3:1)
Ricardo Pietreczko (D) – Xiaochen Zong (CHN) 3:0 (3:0, 3:2, 3:1)
Ryan Meikle (ENG) – Fallon Sherrock (ENG) 3:2 (0:3, 3:0, 3:0, 2:3, 3:1)
2. Round
Mike De Decker (BEL/24) – Luke Woodhouse (ENG) 1:3 (0:3, 1:3, 3:0, 1:3)
Peter Wright (SCO/17) – Wesley Plaisier (NED) 3:1 (3:2, 3:2, 0:3, 3:2)
Darts World Cup, schedule for December 18th
1st round (from 8 p.m.)
Jim Williams (WAL) – Paolo Nebrida (PHI)
Madars Razma (LAT) – Christian Kist (NED)
Ricky Evans (ENG) – Gordon Mathers (AUS)
2. Round
Nathan Aspinall (ENG/12) – Leonard Gates (USA)