Jonny Clayton, alongside new partner Nick Kenny, got their World Cup of Darts campaign under way with a 4-1 victory over Lithuania’s Darius Labanauskas and Mindaugas Barauskas in Group C.
Gerwyn Price and Clayton have won the World Cup twice as a pair for Wales but when Price did not make himself available for selection for the second time in three years, Kenny joined ‘The Ferret’ as the seventh seed.
It was Clayton who guided the team to victory with his experience and a big 146 checkout before taking out a tops, tops finish to wrap things up.
“I enjoyed every second of it. Like I said before, you won’t get a more passionate bloke than this man,” Clayton said.
“He is fantastic. When he sticks on that Welsh shirt, it means everything to him. There’s two of us in the Welsh team.
“When we put this on, it is everything. As a Welshman, as a proud Welshman, you don’t turn down the chance to put a Welsh shirt on. There is more to come from us.”
Germany’s Martin Schindler and Ricardi Pietreczko put in a demolition job with a 4-0 drubbing of the Philippines’ Alexis Toylo and Paolo Nebrida in Group A.
Fifth-seeded Germany famously knocked favourites England’s Luke Littler and Luke Humphries out in the second round in 2025 and sent out a statement with their opening performance and 101.9 average, the pair clicking once again despite ‘Pikachu’s’ recent issues with his throw.
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Phuay Wei Tan got Singapore’s World Cup underway with a big fish in the opening leg!
Ireland’s Willie O’Connor and Mickey Mansell, who became the first player ever to represent two nations at the World Cup of Darts after switching allegiance from Northern Ireland, pulled off an inspired 4-1 win over Singapore’s Paul Lim and Phuay-Wei Tan in Group D.
Seventy-two-year-old legend Lim’s teammate Tan started the contest by reeling in the Big Fish in the opening leg but that was the solitary highlight for Singapore as Ireland’s O’Connor was on fire and led his team to take four legs on the spin with a 122 checkout on the way.
In what was touted by Sky Sports Darts’ John Part as the ‘Group of Death’, USA’s Stowe Buntz and Adam Sevada secured a monumental 4-3 win over Australia’s Damon Heta and Adam Leek in Group G.
Australia managed to claw it back to 3-3 but could not get it over the line in the decider.
Hong Kong’s Man Lok Leung and Lok Yin Lee pulled off an upset with a 4-2 victory over sixth seeds Mike De Decker and Dimitri Van den Bergh in Group B.
Both Belgian players said they were using this World Cup to kickstart their 2026 after both struggling in their individual campaigns on the PDC circuit but after going 3-0 down, they could not complete their comeback.
What else happened?
Japan started off Group K with a thrilling last-leg 6-5 victory over Croatia’s Boris Krcmar and Pero Ljubic.
Ally Pally cult hero Motomu Sakai and Haruki Muramatsu managed to fight back to 2-2 and then the latter took out 81 on the bullseye to take it to the deciding leg, which they nailed on D12.
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Motomu Sakai enters Japan’s first World Cup fixture with a signature bizarre walk-on to kick start their tournament!
Ninth-seeded Poland, who are represented by Krzysztof Ratajski and Sebastian Bialecki, cantered to a 4-1 win over Portugal’s Luis Camacho and Jose de Sousa in Group E.
The pair are touted as a dark horse in this tournament thanks to their recent form and they showed why with a no-nonsense victory.
In Group I, Austria’s Mensur Suljovic and Rusty-Jake Rodriguez came up with a comprehensive 4-1showing against China’s Qingyu Zhan and Xiaochen Zong.
Meanwhile, in Group H, Czech Republic’s pairing of Karel Sedlacek and Adam Gawlas started their campaign with a comprehensive 4-0 drubbing of India’s Nitin Kumar and Ankit Goenka.
Finland’s Jani Haavisto and Jonas Masalin fought from 2-0 down to 3-3 but eventually fell to a 4-3 loss against Norway’s Cor Dekker and Kent Sivertsen in the opening tie of Group L.
Sweden’s Jeffrey de Graaf and Oskar Lukasiak came through a tough 4-2 battle against South Africa’s Devon Petersen and Graham Filby to get off to a good start in Group F.
In Group J, Latvian duo Madars Razma and Valters Melderis stood firm to secure a 4-2 victory over Italy’s Michele Turretta and Riccardo Castelli.
What’s next?
The group stage continues on Friday afternoon, live on Sky Sports from 11am
The action continues on Friday afternoon, live on Sky Sports from 11am as the group stage continues. The group stage will then conclude on Friday evening, live from 6pm.
The top four ranked nations – based on the lowest cumulative PDC ranking of the two competing players – are seeded and will enter at the last 16 stage.
Who will win this year’s World Cup of Darts? Northern Ireland will be defending their title and you can watch all the action on Sky Sports from June 11-14. Stream darts and more top sport with NOW.
