WDF Europe Cup Men Pairs 2018

From 26 to 29 September, the 21st edition of the WDF European Cup was held in the capital of Hungary, Budapest. In the men’s competition 38 different countries came to the oche, which is an absolute record for the WDF Europe Cup. Four countries left their ladies at home, but with 34 countries this edition is also a record breaker for the ladies. In the MOM Sports Centre an exciting tournament was played with some surprising winners. Ukraine is there for the first time, making it the 41st country to ever participate in a WDF Europe Cup.

The 2018 tournament is very open. This was already evident in the team tournament and in the singles. The pairs tournament is no exception. Eight different countries eventually reach the quarterfinals. Ross Montgomery & Alan Soutar beat the Danish pair Mogens Christensen & Lars-Andersen Helsinghof for Scotland without losing a leg. Martijn Kleermaker & Chris Landman from the Netherlands beat Jim Williams & Arwyn Morris from Wales 4-1 in the same round. The other two quarterfinals are a lot more exciting. Scott Mitchell & Daniel Day win in a seventh and deciding leg over Ireland's John O'Shea & Martin Heneghan. Michal Ondo & Roman Benischko from the Czech Republic are the last duo to reach the last four. They beat the Belgians Roger Janssen & Jeffrey van Egdom, also in a seventh leg.

The "big" countries eventually reach the final. Especially in the pairs England and the Netherlands have always been very successful at WDF Cups. Kleermaker & Landman beat the Scots 5-3 and Mitchell & Day win 5-0 against the Czechs, who may have been just a bit too happy to have a medal. Rightly so, because until 2018 the Czech Republic had never won any medals in a WDF Europe Cup.

Prior to the final, Martijn Kleermaker & Chris Landman know that if they beat Scott Mitchell & Daniel Day, the overall title is also immediately won for the Netherlands. If the English duo win then they will be at the top of the rankings for the time being, but the Netherlands will still have the team final to play and by winning it they can grab the overall Cup. The pressure seems too much for the Dutch because they do not reach the level of earlier in the tournament. The English tandem makes good use of this and plays strongly. Scott Mitchell & Daniel Day take the pairs title. For England, this is the tenth time in history that they have done that. Scott Mitchell had also previously won the pairs title in 2014. Mitchell is the ninth player with multiple gold medals in this discipline.

WDF Europe Cup Men Pairs

About WDF Europe Cup Men Pairs 2018

Competitors Of WDF Europe Cup Men Pairs 2018

John Agius

Alejandro Ameneiros

Daniel-Martins Amil

Tobias Anliker

George Anyfantis

Josep Arimany

Carlos Arola

Usyk Artem

Norbert Attard

Tom Becker

Stefan Bellmont

Roman Benischko

William Biggane

Andy Bless

Zanis Buklovski

Tom Burquel

Oleksii Bushui

Erdem Butuner

Euan Callander

Gavin Carlin

Iain Cash

Luca Catallo

Ulf Ceder

Mogens Christensen

Arunas Ciplys

Andrea Contino

Tony Dawkins

Daniel Day

John Desreumaux

Dylan Duo

Halgrímur Egilsson

Steve Eusebini

Oliver Ferenc

Pauli Finnala

David Francis

Adrian Frim

Sergio Garrido

Demetris Georgiou

Marios Georgiou

Chris Gilliland

Thorgeir Gudmundsson

Petur Rudrik Gudmundsson

Vitor Charrua

Aaron Hardy

Wayne Harrison

Andreas Harrysson

Lars Helsinghof

Martin Heneghan

Nigel Heydon

Paul Hogan

Ryan Hogarth

František Humpula

Krasimir Ivanov

Ugnius Jankúnas

Roger Janssen

Daniel Jensen

Pavel Jirkal

Laszlo Kadar

Aleksey Kadochnikov

Marko Kantele

Jan Kapaun

Oguzhan Kaya

Andy Keen

Paul Kelly

Nick Kenny

Martijn Kleermaker

Stig-Jarle Knudsen

Boris Koltsov

Ermos Korradou

Dejan Kovacevic

Raido Kruusvee

Frank Kunze

Darius Labanauskas

Jacques Labre

Chris Landman

Daniel Larsson

Mark Layton