The Darts World Cup in London is over for the German professionals after the emotional departure of Ricardo Pietreczko. The 29-year-old from Nuremberg, nicknamed Pikachu, lost 3-4 to Luke Humphries after leading 3-1 and narrowly missed out on a surprise against the World Cup favorites from England.
Within two days, Martin Schindler, Gabriel Clemens, Florian Hempel and whiz kid Pietreczko were eliminated against English professionals at Alexandra Palace.
Pietreczko looked like the sure winner at times. The German fans sang “Oh, how nice that is” and “Home game in England, we have a home game in England”. Humphries sagged for several sets, but improved again on time from the fifth set onwards and prevailed in the end thanks to his strong nerves. The game was reminiscent of the duel between Michael Smith and Schindler the previous year. Smith also went 1:3 at the time – and became world champion a few days later.
This time Schindler lost 3:4 against Scott Williams, Clemens 1:4 against Dave Chisnall and Hempel 0:4 against co-favorite Stephen Bunting. Pietreczko was quickly present in the evening after a weak start and took a lead. But that wasn’t enough.
Humphries has won three majors in a row this year and earned significantly more prize money than all other professionals on the world association PDC tour. There will be no further coup for the Germans this time, like Clemens’s entry into the World Cup semi-finals a year ago. England, on the other hand, is well represented with world champion Smith, favorite Humphries and teenage sensation Luke Littler.
