World Cup - First Day

ENGLAND OFF TO FLIER IN BWIN WORLD CUP OF DARTS BID
ENGLAND'S Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis began their bid to win the bwin World Cup of Darts title for a third successive year with a 5-0 whitewash of Thailand on Friday night, as Holland, Australia and Belgium joined them in the second round in Hamburg.

Taylor and Lewis have teamed up to claim the pairs title at the Sporthalle Hamburg for the past two years, and denied debutants Thanawat Gaweenuntawong & Watanyu Charoonroj a dart at a double in a dominant first round victory.
The duo will now play American pair Darin Young and Larry Butler in the second round on Saturday, with Taylor in a relaxed and confident mood as he seeks to inspire England's football team to World Cup glory by completing his own hat-trick.

"We're coming up on stage nice and relaxed, but we're trying our socks off and we want to be the first English team to win a World Cup this summer," said Taylor. "We put in a good performance but we've got to be better on Saturday against the USA, We're happy with the 5-0 because we wanted to send a message out to the rest of the lads, and we showed that we're beginning to gel as a team and we're a happy partnership."
Lewis bullishly added: "It would be massive to win this for a third time a row, and if we both click, there's only one winner in this tournament. The Dutch guys have been winning most things for the last six months so we want to put the record straight. We have to take it on the chin and make sure we win this because we believe we're the better players."

The Dutch duo of World Champion Michael van Gerwen and new Premier League Darts champion Raymond van Barneveld dropped only two legs as they defeated Italian duo Marco Brentegani and Daniele Petri with the help of an 11-dart leg.
They now play Spain in the second round, with van Barneveld aiming to emulate his 2010 World Cup triumph alongside Co Stompe on Sunday night.
"It was great to win in 2010 and it would mean a lot to win this again," said van Barneveld. "We can win it, but we have to play well and it will be an exciting match tomorrow. You couldn't pick a better partner and Michael's on fire at the moment. He's fantastic and such a great player to team up with, and he did all the work tonight."

Former finalists Wales, Australia and Belgium all progressed to the last 16 of the tournament with victories in Friday's first round, although they enjoyed varying degrees of difficulty in their wins.
Welsh duo Mark Webster and Richie Burnett had to come from 2-0 and 4-3 down as they avoided a huge upset against French debutants Jacques Labre and Lionel Maranhao with a narrow 5-4 victory.

Australian pair Simon Whitlock and Paul Nicholson defeated Danish duo Per Laursen and Dennis Lindskjold 5-2, while Belgian brothers Kim and Ronny Huybrechts whitewashed Indian newcomers Amit Gilitwala and Nitan Kumar.
Scotland's Peter Wright and Robert Thornton came from a leg down to Russia's Evgenii Zhukov and Evgenii Izotov before sealing a 5-1 victory with a 106 finish from World Championship finalist Wright.
Nothern Ireland's Brendan Dolan and Michael Mansell also endured some nervy moments before defeating Malaysia 5-2, with Kesava Roa and Thomat Darus sharing the game's opening four legs.

Ireland were one of four seeded nations to be knocked out of the 200,000 pound event as Connie Finnan and William O'Connor went down 5-3 to Singapore's Paul Lim and Harith Lim, who won four successive legs from being 3-1 down.

Host nation Germany also crashed out as Jyhan Artut and Andree Welge were defeated 5-3 by South Africa's Devon Petersen and Graham Filby, who stormed out of the blocks to take a 3-0 lead before holding their advantage to claim the win and set up a clash with Singapore in round two.
"I was nervous but I felt good," said Filby, a star of his country's domestic circuit making his World Cup debut. "I've always wanted to play with Devon and got the opportunity here, and I want to make my breakthrough."
Petersen, who is competing in his third World Cup of Darts, said: "The stage is where I enjoy my darts best, the fans really make the sport great and it's amazing to be back. It was like having a brother on stage. Graham's been ranked number one in South Africa while I was injured and I knew he'd be good on stage, and he took to it like a duck to water. You can only progress when you're in the competition, and we're still in. On our day anyone can win this tournament."

Finland, who won through to last year's semi-finals of the World Cup of Darts, were shock 5-4 losers to Polish duo Krzysztof Chmielewski & Krzysztof Strozyk, as the debutants came from 3-1 down to claim victory in the deciding leg with a 120 checkout.
Japan's Morihiro Hashimoto and Haruki Muramatsu also won in a deciding leg as they came from 5-4 to win against Canada's John Part and Shaun Narain, who missed a combined total of seven match darts before agonisingly losing out.

American duo Darin Young and Larry Butler impressed with a 5-1 win over Hungary's Nandor Bezzeg and Zsolt Meszaros, as the experienced pair set up a tasty second round clash with England on Saturday night.
"We play well together," said left-hander Young. "We've got the utmost confidence in each other and we play together regularly in Doubles matches back home, and we fancy our chances here."

Spanish duo Antonio Alcinas and Carlos Rodriguez showed glimpses of the form which took them to the 2010 World Cup of Darts semi-finals as they defeated the New Zealand pairing of Rob Szabo and Craig Caldwell. The Kiwis led 3-2 at one stage, but Rodriguez took out 90 and 124 in successive legs to turn the game before Alcinas hit a 180 and his partner landed tops to claim the win.
Experienced Magnus Caris partnered newcomer Peter Sajwani to victory for Sweden as they defeated Gibraltar's Dylan Duo and Dyson Parody 5-2, with Hong Kong and Austria enjoying victory by the same scoreline against Norway and China respectively.
Hong Kong's Ting Chi Royden Lam and Scott Mackenzie now progress to face Australia, while Austrian duo Mensur Suljovic and Rowby-John Rodriguez - the recent PDC Unicorn World Youth Championship finalist - will take on Belgium in round two.

The second round features a mixture of Singles and Doubles games as the players bid to claim places in Sunday's final stages at the Sporthalle Hamburg.







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