The World Cup that’s a bit of a joke... and deadly serious

The whole tournament is a carnival of fascinations, perhaps sport’s closest relative to Eurovision. India’s Mohan Goel starts his throw with his elbow by his chin, and releases the dart with a devilishly camp double-jointed wrist flick. At 6ft 7in, Cor Dekker is comfortably a foot taller than his Norwegian partner, but equally bald. Australia’s duo – the 2022 champions – emerge in cork hats. Upon beating India, Czech Petr Krivka unleashes a celebratory roar so primal his chewing gum falls out, which he then nonchalantly picks up and puts in his pocket. There’s outrage among the ranks that the PDC-provided kits are not true to size. “I asked for an XL, but this feels more like a medium!” fumed Dutch world No 23 Gian van Veen.

Gibraltar – population 38,471 – beat China – population 1.4 billion. Hong Kong beat the United States. Lithuania beat France. Argentina, the only debutants, top a group with New Zealand and Finland. The distribution of competence is neither linear nor explicable, but it is fun.

And yet, as with all darts, amid the deep unseriousness, there is a sense this really matters. This can be a lonely, isolating sport. It encourages, even requires, selfishness. Playing for both your partner and your country is a refreshing shift in motivation.

“It’s the ultimate achievement,” New Zealand’s Haupai “Hopes” Puha told The Observer. “It’s what I put at the top of the list darts-wise. I always wanted to play for my country. When you put on the shirt, the fern, it means a lot more to us Kiwis.” American Danny Lauby calls it “so special” and Craig Galliano says pulling on his Gibraltar shirt “means everything to me”. Now 23, he’s also played U21 football for Gibraltar, once facing Micky van de Ven. Puha, a scratch golfer, is another gifted multi-format athlete, a relatively new darting phenomenon.

Paul Lim, the 71-year-old “Singapore Slinger”, settles for “the ultimate sensation”, and he should know.

Across a 40-year career, he’s represented Papua New Guinea (where he first started playing seriously), the United States (via a green card), Hong Kong (where he now lives) and Singapore (his birth country). The son of a wealthy jade merchant with multiple wives and more than 20 children, this is his 11th World Cup, but his first not alongside Harith Lim (no relation). His new partner Phuay-Wei Tan was born the year before Lim became the first person to hit a nine-darter at a World Championship, in 1990.

Last December, he reached the final of the WDF World Championship, one of the great stories of sporting longevity.

More than anything, the World Cup is a rare opportunity to highlight darts’ ever-expanding lower middle class, the semi-professionals and just-about-professionals. It acts as a release and reward in what can be a brutal schedule of repeated defeats in Wigan and Leicester.

Puha and Lauby both have PDC Tour Cards, often called the sport’s golden ticket as it guarantees a steady income via qualification to the Pro Tour. But competing on the tour requires being based in England, or at least Europe.

And so having just turned 40, Puha lives in a flatshare for the first time, with four other Kiwis in West Acton, nearly 19,000 miles from home and his family. Across the past 18 months, the furthest he’s made it in a Pro Tour event is the last 16. Lauby hasn’t made it past the second round and talks about “13-year-old kids at competitions that are ready to dish me up”. There’s a lot of long nights and losing involved.

“It’s just emotionally difficult,” Lauby, a drummer who moved to Cheltenham earlier this year, said. “I’m not home anymore. I don’t see my son, I get FaceTimes. I don’t get to see the family. When it’s just a different calibre consistently, it can beat you down when you’re not playing well. It’s just more draining, emotionally, physically, it’s just harder. It’s a ruthless game.”

Even as New Zealand are knocked out by Argentina after a last-leg decider, Puha averages over 100 in both games and hits four 180s. Lauby is less successful, not helped by his partner Jules van Dongen averaging a pub-league 52, triggered by recently changing his throwing hand in an attempt to combat dartitis.

Malaysia, South Africa and the Philippines make the last 16 in Frankfurt, the clearest indicator of darts’ ongoing global proliferation. The first World Cup was held 15 years ago in Houghton-le-Spring’s Rainton Arena – for scale, that’s the same venue Durham University use for their charity fashion show.

Unsurprisingly, England are the reigning champions, having won the most titles – five. Luke Littler MBE and Luke Humphries MBE are this year’s English offering, the world No 1 and 2 a superteam to rival four-time victors Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis.

This is the first time Littler has played in Germany since April. For reasons unclear, German crowds have taken against the boy king to an extent which has really rattled him. He decreed on Instagram he wouldn’t return until the European Tour finals in Dortmund in October, forgetting about the World Cup. The opponents for his World Cup debut? Germany. That’s entertainment.

Photograph by Florian Wiegand/Getty Images