News

As we announced, our expedition consisting of: Alliance President Tihomir Mamic, team manager Slaven Kovacevic (technical part) and Dragutin Pecnjak, Ivica Cavric, Alan Ljubić and Dean Biskupic (sports section) headed to Romanian Cluj to present HPS at WDF General Assembly (technical part) and competed in the World Cup of the largest darts family in the world, which lasted from 7 to 12 October 2019.

Croatian darts stood side by side with the largest

Already on Monday, the General Assembly of the WDF was scheduled, at which one of the items on the agenda was the addition of new members. As we have already written on this site, HPS has been strongly lobbying and fulfilling all the prerequisites in the past and this year so that they can knock on the door of this prestigious darts association. The official document on admission to associate membership of HPS was received on January 30, 2019. That document was an extra wind in the back for us to fill out applications for full membership, so we rightly expected positive responses from this assembly.

It was not easy at the assembly itself, we had to convince the official representatives of the 56 national federations through direct presentation how persistent we are with the intention of raising the classic darts to a level that will satisfy the various WDF commissions. There was an uneasy feeling when we had to leave the hall for a moment for the permanent members to discuss our application with one another. For a quarter of an hour, the HPS debate lasted for an eternity (there was a decision on the head not to receive us), there were such decisions in the history of the WDF. After about twenty minutes, the Assembly unanimously passed the Decision on the admission of the HPS to full membership in the WDF.

The huge success of HPS, which opens many closed doors to Croatian players, but also the huge responsibility of the HPS towards that world federation, as the WDF continuously monitors its members on the status of classic darts in them. If we do not prove ourselves in the competitive and organizational segment, WDF's doors will be closed to us in perspective. So now it's all up to us.

The competition part

And in this piece a total unknown called the WDF World Cup. Driven by great results on electronic darts in recent years and expectations have been consistent with those results, despite warnings that this is a completely different dimension to darts. Unfortunately, ours felt it in a cruel way. The first and basic difference is in the competition system, because there is no repair, there is no left, you lose-you fall out. It's automatic and harder to play when you have it in the subconscious that it is - that there is no repair. Except for the team part in the group stage when Round Robin is played (each with each).

But let's start in order. Ours really and smoothly started in individual competition. Ljubic was admittedly free in the first round, but the Cavra (against Mongolian Altantulkhuur Myagmarsuren), Bishka (against Simon Brown) and Oven (against Matti Pinelli of Italy) went furiously and swept their opponents with identical results - 4: 0! The same result in the second round went to Picek (against Nemanja Smolic from Serbia), but unfortunately, all the others were stuck in the second round. Cavric knocked out Tom Burquel of Luxembourg 4: 1, with the same result from Biskupic Nick Kenny of Wales, while Swede Oscar Lukasiak edged out Dragutin Oven, tight, 4: 3. That is why Picek did not stop, but Frenchman Thibault Tricole also fell, but among the best 32 he was still better than him later Australian finalist Peter Machin 4: 1. Machina defeated New Zealand's Darren Herewini in the final 7-6, knowing the rivalry between Ozzie and the All Blacks Peter probably would have preferred to have lost to Picek among the 32.

The treat we were waiting for and most hopeful for was the team competition. The oddity is that each match is played only on one leg won - up to nine before. The lot meant for us a very strong group with Russians and Australians. Starting against Russia and winning 9: 6 increased that optimism and expectations. The second match against the current world champions, Australia, proved to be difficult. Despite the 9-8 defeat, there was reason to be pleased and optimistic, as we certainly passed the group regardless of the result of the match between Russia and Australia. In the knock out phase between the 32 best national teams, the draw was set for us by Hong Kong, boosted by Singaporean Paul Lim. From 0: 4 our fanatic returns to 5: 5 and when we thought we had entered a rhythm inexplicably our game started to shut down and the final score was 9: 5 for the Hong Kong national team. We are leaving the team competition and waiting for the next day when the pairs are scheduled.

Ours had the opportunity to repair the impression in the doubles tournament. The best European soft-tip pair and the unbeaten pair in the Croatian Masters for two seasons, Pečnjak / Cavrić, got stuck in the first round by the Kim / Kim 4: 1 Koreans, while the Biskupic / Ljubic beat the strong Norwegians Sivertsen / Elvevoll 4: 2. The next round was unfortunately brought to them by another English pair, Heydon / Atkins. Against a big favorite, ours did not give up so easily, they expensively sold the skin, but also lost 3: 4. The winners of the unlearned couple are a surprise, but for the more ignorant, it is not. The Canadians of the world became Canadians Jeff Smith and David Cameron. Smith has been in the North American continent finals for several years and also played in the BDO World Cup Finals a few years ago. They beat the first English combination Mitchell / Day 6-2 in the final. For comparison with "our" soft guy, let's also say that the European vice-champions in soft guy Koltsov / Oreshkin got stuck in the eighth finals.

That is where the Croatian story at this World Cup ended. It's not so bad for a debut, but it's not even what our best players are used to, and it's much better placements and titles. In the future, we will have to work harder and sweat to shed. Wales became the world champions (Jim Williams, Darren Bingham, Arwyn Morris, Nick Kenny) in the finals of our executioners Hong Kong 9: 7, who won the English 9: 5 in the semifinals, while Wales reached the finals with victories over Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

Lastly, according to the WDF scoring system, our team took the 26th place with South Korea, Greece, Germany and Latvia. So we are currently somewhere in the middle of the 52 countries that participated in this World Cup. The best on the table were the Dutch, ahead of Wales and England.

With the ladies, she won her BDO World Champion title with Japan's Mikuru Suzuki, defeating Det Hedman in the finals, and in doubles with Mayumi Ouchi, she also won the women's doubles title, defeating Czech Cisarova / Gregurkova in the final. The team of England (Maria O'Brien, Lorraine Winstanley, Deta Hedman, Fallon Sherrock) were the best in the finals, beating Australia 9: 4, ahead of Japan and Australia in the top spot in the overall standings. When the baby miracle of Beau Greaves joins them in the future, it will be even stronger. She had Beau's places in quality and in this lineup but she strengthened the junior English team. The male miracle of Leighton Bennett's child did not occur.

The next big show of the Croatian national team is expected next year in the 9th month when the WDF Euro Cup will be held in Spain, where it is intended to compete in ladies and men's senior disciplines.