The first long day of the William Hill World Darts Championship 2020 ended with a shock for fans of the Barney Army and Rob Cross.
The fact that the fans have to say goodbye to Raymond van Barneveld at this World Cup was something they were able to prepare for a year ago. But that this should already be after his performance came as a surprise to everyone. With 1:3 “Barney” lost against Darin Young and he was visibly beaten in the following interviews.
The next shock followed a short time later, when Rob Cross was clearly defeated by Kim Huybrechts. Cross was one of the favourites after good performances in the last few months, but he was never able to keep his top form. The 2018 World Champion will lose second place in the Order of Merit to Gerwyn Price.
Previously, the fans in Ally Pally had already seen high-class and exciting matches between Luke Humphries and Jermaine Wattimena as well as Zoran Lerchbacher and Jamie Hughes. Both games went over the full distance before Humphries and Lerchbacher were able to assert themselves.
Darius Labanauskas 3-0 Matthew Edgar
Yuki Yamada 3-1 Ryan Meikle
Luke Woodhouse 3-0 Paul Lim
Luke Humphries 3-2 Jermaine Wattimena (R2)
Mark McGeeney 3-1 Matt Campbell
Zoran Lerchbacher 3-2 Jamie Hughes
Darin Young 3-1 Raymond van Barneveld
Kim Huybrechts 3-0 Rob Cross (R2)
