Watch: The moment Wales won the World Cup of darts
Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton sealed a second World Cup of Darts trophy for Wales with a clinical performance in their 10-2 victory over Scotland’s Gary Anderson and Peter Wright in Frankfurt.
The 2020 champions had beaten Belgium in a nervy 8-7 thriller to reach the title decider against the Scots, who had eliminated German hosts Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler to set up the all-British final.
Price and Clayton quickly cruised to a 3-0 lead before Wright took out 93 to hold and secure the Scots’ first winning leg.
Victories in five successive legs for Price and Clayton, however, gave the Scottish duo a mountain to climb but they clawed back another leg win through Anderson’s 12-darter to make it 8-2.
That was the end of the celebrations for ‘The Flying Scotsman’ Anderson and PDC world number two ‘Snakebite’ Wright, however, as Wales soon found themselves one away thanks to Clayton equalling his match-highest 116 checkout in the 11th.
Price was off-target in the 12th, missing three darts at double 18 before Clayton stepped up to seal the result.
WALES ARE WORLD CUP CHAMPIONS! 🏴🏆
The World Cup is in Welsh hands once again! 👏
A simply sublime display from Jonny Clayton and Gerwyn Price who breeze their way to glory, defeating Scotland 8-2 in the final!#WorldCupofDarts | Final pic.twitter.com/4VAVIiyJVF
— PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) June 18, 2023
The Iceman Price credited his team-mate for the win, telling Sky Sports: “Honestly I think I struggled a little bit in that game. Jonny was the one to pick our trophy up. He won it for us tonight.
“He was fantastic at scoring, checking out. I was there in between but he was clinical. Fair play to Jonny. What a player, absolute gentleman as well.
“It’s a difficult sport against the best players in the world week-in and week-out and to win by that margin is a little bit flattering. We’re thrilled to win and Jonny carried me tonight, so happy days.”
The Scots were still in good spirits as Anderson lavished praise on his opponents, though joked he might not feel so festive come the end of the year.
He said: “The Welsh have got a cracking darts team. We tried, and we’re not getting any younger bit we’ll still try.
“You’ve got Gerwyn, what he’s done in darts over the last few years and you’ve got the Ferret (Clayton) – I ain’t sending him no Christmas card this year.”
"Jonny was the one to pick that trophy up, he won it for us tonight!" 🤝
Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton on their World Cup Championship win 🏴 pic.twitter.com/7qXRkhfkbe
— Sky Sports Darts (@SkySportsDarts) June 18, 2023
The final was a much smoother affair for the 2023 champions than their semi-final, which saw them narrowly evade a Belgian comeback.
Dimitri van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts had already ensured there would be a new winner in the revamped tournament after ousting defending champions Australia to reach the last eight.
Price and Clayton, who lost to the Aussies in last year’s final, looked to have put the contest in cruise control when they were two legs from advancing at 6-3 but the Belgians rallied to force a deciding leg.
Scotland, meanwhile, dashed Clemens and Schindler’s dreams of reaching a fairy-tale final in front of the home support after the Germans had shocked England’s top-seeded Rob Cross and Michael Smith to advance with an 8-3 victory in the quarter-final.
Clemens and Schindler won three successive legs to make it 7-2 and it ultimately proved too significant a deficit for Cross and Smith to overcome.
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Well done to Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton. Wales are Darts World Cup champions thanks to them! Didn’t see any fanfare on the BBC or congratulations from the prime minister as done when the English Lionesses won the European Championships in 2022.
Saying that, Wales won the Rugby 7s World Cup in 2009 beating Fiji on its way to the final and the same happened then. Nothing. Why am I surprised when we have an Anglocentric media and Conservative government ruling over us.
Hear hear. They really don’t like it when someone else wins but having said that we have a television channel, S4C, that should be giving Cymru coverage and applause in both Cymraeg a Saesneg but instead they choose to show cartoons for most of the day.
Yeah, our media services are just as often ignorant to Welsh sport as the English are to it. For example, how many people from Wales have heard of the likes Of Ffion Davies? She is a BJJ world Champion. Yes, the fact the English control 99.9% of the Media plays a part in this, but we also have some Blame. Especially “Our” Politicians.
Well done the boys, did Cymru proud!
Da iawn bois. Well done boys.
Not a word on the BBC national news about Wales winning the world darts if it was the English Who were world champions it would be all over the mainstream news Why should the Welsh people pay the BBC license fee???