The second half of the first round of the World Cup of Darts from the Eissporthalle in Frankfurt is headlined by what remains the biggest shock in the tournament's history.
In the first ever running of the event back in 2010, the little known Spanish pairing of Antonio Alcinas and Carlos Rodriguez stunned England's multiple major winners Phil Taylor and James Wade in a last leg decider and eventually made it all the way to the semi-finals where they lost 4-0 to the Dutch pairing of Raymond van Barneveld and Co Stompe.
Nowadays, England is more accurately described as Stoke with Adrian Lewis taking Med Man's place and Carlos Rodriguez has dropped off the darting planet to be replaced by Tennereefy (copyright Eric Bristow) star of Cristo Reyes. With both Philth and Snackpot in woeful form recently, the Fat Man averaging less than 80 in Dubai last week against Dave Chisnall, could the memories of Rainton Meadows Arena inspire another Spanish success?
Elsewhere in the evening, monster chin Daryl Gurney and muscleman Gerwyn Price debut for Northern Ireland and Wales against Japan and Finland respectively, while "Austrians" Mensur Suljovic and Rowby-John Rodriguez face Italy, who will be represented on the European Tour for the first time after Daniele Petri qualified for next month's European Darts Open.
In the unseeded matchups, Greece debut in the competition with dancing Sergio Aguero wannabe John Michael against John Part's Canada, last year's epic battle between Ireland and Hong Kong is repeated, featuring the glasses of Royden Lam and conspiracy nut Scott Mackenzie, dancing Devon Petersen's South Africa face Singapore who have Paul "REMEMBER HIM HE HIT A 9 DARTER GO ON YOU REMEMBER DON'T YOU?!" Lim somehow still in their top two, and China play the Czech Republic in, if yesterday's Thailand-Hungary match is to be repeated, a complete mess of a fixture.
Coverage starts from 7:00pm UK time on Sky Sports 1.
>Tonight's matches - Round One (best of 9 legs doubles) Czech Republic v China Greece v Canada Republic of Ireland v Hong Kong South Africa v Singapore Northern Ireland (4) v Japan Wales (5) v Finland England (1) v Spain Austria (8) v Italy
Oh boy oh boy, this should be fun. Who we got this time?
>Czech Republic v China Czechs take it in a dreadful match. This is basically just a coin flip.
>Greece v Canada Canada should be able to take this on Fat Man Part's baseline competency alone, but he could royally fuck this up. The Whitlock Choke being denied yesterday could bode badly for other potential choke artists.
>Republic of Ireland v Hong Kong For no particular reason, I'm going with Hong Kong on this one.
>South Africa v Singapore South Africa should have this one. Petersen alone should be able to carry this one over the finish line.
>Northern Ireland (4) v Japan Picking Japan in an upset. I'm just not feeling good about Dolan at all, and if Dolan fails, then Norn Iron goes to shit.
>Wales (5) v Finland Wales should win this handily. Doubles are weird, but these two should be solid enough to gloss over any wacky problems.
>England (1) v Spain TAYLORWINSLOL. I'm not getting my hopes up at all for this shit.
>Austria (8) v Italy Going with Austria on this one. Similarly to the Wales match, Mensur and Rowby-John should be able to see the unseeded team off with relative ease.
Looks like a fun night to me.
Kevin Scott
>For no particular reason, I'm going with Hong Kong on this one. >no particular reason Liar.
Grayson Ross
A U S T R I A
I hope you're right about Norn Ireland.
>"Austrians" Mensur Suljovic and Rowby-John Rodriguez Oi, both are Austrian af.
Aiden Flores
>we will never see Feel and Wolfie team up together to rule darts for Eng-er-land
