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The 2003 World Cup, held in Epinal,
France September 25-27,
The US Men’s team, consisting of Ray Carver, John Kuczynski, Bill Davis and George Walls accomplished a feat that had only been dome once previously by an American team when in 1985 the team of Dan Valletto, Rick Ney, Tony Payne and John Kramer won the prestigious Men’s Team event. The Men’s Team event is played over three days, matching teams first in a round robin group, and then a knockout with the top 16 teams from the round robin competition. Each match is the best of 17 legs, with each player on a team playing each player from the opposing team. The US Men were in a round robin group with Germany, Denmark and the Bahamas, where the top 2 teams would advance to the top 16. In the round robin competition, the US started slowly, with a tough 9-7 loss to Germany. Shortly after this the US rebounded to defeat Denmark 9-4, and finished the round robin competition with a 9-2 win over the Bahamas. The US Men finished with a 2-1 mark, and had to wait for the results of the other matches in the bracket to see if they would advance. Both Germany and Denmark defeated the Bahamas, so the match between Denmark and Germany would determine the final order of finish in the group. Denmark defeated Germany 9-3, giving all three teams a 2-1 record, but by having the greatest differential in legs won during the round robin, the US finished first in the bracket, while Denmark finished second, and Germany was eliminated. The US Men advanced to the top 16 and a match with the Republic of Ireland.
By virtue of their 1st place finish, the US was matched against the Republic of Ireland, the second place finisher from another group, while Denmark was pitted against top seeded England. In the first upset of the competition, the Denmark squad went to a tie breaking 17th leg and eliminated the heavily favored English squad of Martin Phillips, Andy Fordham, Tony O’Shea and Mervyn King. Meanwhile, the US Team was defeating the Republic of Ireland, led by former US player Steve McDonnell, 9-4. This advanced the US Men to the Quarterfinals and a matchup against Norway. Against Norway, the US started the match with a 13 dart game by Ray Carver, and was led by Bill Davis with a record of 3-0.
The challenge in the semi-final was the heavily favored team from Finland, led by Jarkko Komula, a semi-finalist in the mens singles. This match saw the US jump out to a quick 4-1 lead and Finland erase that by winning four straight legs to take a 5-4 lead. The two teams then traded wins in the next four legs making the score 7-6 in favor of Finland, but the US then had wins by Walls and Carver to give John Kuczynski the opportunity in the 16th leg to send the US to the stage, and finish off a perfect 4-0 match for himself, and he did not disappoint with a win over Finland’s Kim Viljanen. The US Men were now off to the finals to meet the powerful team from the Netherlands. The US Men were now in a position that few people at the World Cup had predicted they would be in, facing the powerful Netherlands, led by eventual Singles winner, and former Embassy champ Raymond van Barnaveld and Co Stompe, on the stage competing for the team title. For the Netherlands, there was more at stake than simply the team event title, they knew that if they won the team event, and van Barnaveld was to win the Singles title later in the day, they would take home their first World Cup. The Netherlands started quickly, with Co Stompe beginning the match with a 180 and finishing the first leg in 11 darts. This did not seem to phase the US men, as they went on to get wins in the next three legs from Carver over Albertino Essers, Walls over van Barnaveld and Davis over Vincent van der Voort to give the US a 3-1 lead. After a win for the Netherlands by Essers in leg 5, the next four legs saw wins for the US from Walls and Carver, followed by wins for the Netherlands from van Barnaveld and van der Voort to make the score 5-4 in favor of the US. This lead was extended to 7-4 with wins by Carver and Davis, but was cut to 7-5 by van Barnaveld and Stompe. With the US leading 7-6, Walls denied the Netherlands a chance to tie by defeating Essers in leg 14. Raymond van Barnaveld kept the Netherlands hopes alive with a win in leg 15, bringing them within one at 8-7. In leg 16, just as he had done against Finland in the Semi-Finals, John Kuczynski was at the line with a chance to bring the victory home for the US, and he did not disappoint. John defeated van der Voort to give the US a 9-7 victory over a stunned Netherlands team, and a crowd of about 500 in Epinal.
On the strength of the Gold Medal in the Mens Team event, and a top 8 finish in the pairs by Ray Carver and John Kuczynski where they defeated former Embassy champ Tony David of Australia, the US Men were awarded the Bronze medal in the overall competition. England was the winner of the World cup behind their sweep of first and second place in the pairs, and a top 4 in the singles. The Netherlands finished in second place overall, behind the Singles win for Raymond van Barnaveld.
The Womens Word Cup went to England, behind the singles win of Trina Gulliver, with the Netherlands finishing second and Finland third. The US team of Carolyn Mars and Holy carver finished 16th overall, and top 16 in the pairs, losing to the team from Finland, who finished second overall. The winning kept on for the US in the French Open held in Epinal the day after the World Cup ended, with Bill Davis finishing second in the Mens Singles to Tony David of Australia, and Carolyn Mars finishing in the Top 16 in the Ladies Singles.
Article submitted to PhillyDarts.com by Buddy Bartoletta
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