The newer format which worked well, saw the weaker nations pair off first on the friday afternoon in a best of nine legs match, the final game of USA -v- Finland being the pick of the games which the Finn won after the USA blew chances to win it.
The evening session which saw the seeded teams enter provided no shocks, and a few solid performances by both the Republic & Northern Ireland who beat Belgium.
It was day 2 that the event started to really pick up pace and in the afternoon session Ireland was the first seed to be sent packing by a stubborn South Africa, in what was a poor game in general.
The USA again had chances to qualify but lost out to the Germans this time, in the best group in terms of closeness.
The afternoon session was total carnage for the majority of seeds. Up first were Northern Ireland who were utter shit against Croatia and deservedly went out, as did the Republic of Ireland who were just as bad. O Connor had a woeful comp and Finnan alone could not stop their defeat to the Japanese.
2 even bigger shocks were to follow straight away, when first Belgium who looked awful in their first match against Northern Ireland put in a fine performance to knock out the much fancied Aussies, bye bye Nicholson ya pratt. Scotland were even worse in their defeat to a solid enough display by the Spaniards. The next game between England and south Africa should have produced the biggest shock, they had a dart for the match to put out England, sadly for everyone around the world it was not to be. The shocks kept coming and the following game saw the handy finnish pair take out a lacklustre Dutch side. As good and exciting as all those shocks were it only served to strengthen the chances that England would certainly win this comp.
In the final game of the night the host nation Germany saw off neighbours Poland to make the last 8.
The final day and last 8 kicked off with Croatia -v- Belgium with the Belgians wrapping it up quick with 2 victories in the singles to go through, the Welsh in the next game needed a doubles game against the Spaniards after Rodriguez beat Burnett in the singles to get through and make the semi finals.
The third quarterfinal also saw a doubles match after Adrian Lewis lost to Japans Sho Katsumi, before the favorites saw off the valiant Japs in the final game.The last game of the evening saw a decent competitive and entertaining match between the Finns and the hosts Germany which could have went either way in all 3 match ups, before the finns eventually won through.
The semi finals started with Finland and Belgium, and the difference was Kim Huybrechts who played superbly, his brother in his singles match was poor and a final doubles match was needed which saw the Huybrechts brothers finish that game with a 105 average.
The second semi saw England -v- Wales, and again Taylor proved to be dominant in his match , this time over Webster, but Wales took the game to a deciding doubles match after Burnett managed to beat Lewis who again like most of the comp was well below par. The doubles match was a lot closer than was expected and like South Africa against England, Wales also missed a dart to send England out, before England won the final leg and progressed to meet Belgium in the final.
Sky hyped the destiny of Belgium, the 2 brothers doing so well, playing for their recently departed father, but unfortunately this aint disneyland and reality is a whole different thing sadly, and sure enough we were treated to the eventual England victory and seeing the English pair prance about the stage.
An enjoyable comp, certainly different than the usual, and while it was never gonna break records or treat us to the same emotions of other majors it did give us a chance to witness players we normally would not see except for possibly in World championship prelims. I see this comp improving year on year and a worthy addition to the calender, just a shame those 2 cunts had to win it.
