HOLDERS England cruised through to the quarter-finals of the Betway World Cup of Darts without dropping a leg against South Africa on Saturday, as the Netherlands needed a doubles victory to progress and Russia and Singapore reached the last eight in Frankfurt.
The England team of Adrian Lewis and Dave Chisnall continued their campaign for a record fifth World Cup title with relatively easy victories over South African pair of Devon Petersen and Deon Oliver.
Lewis was the first to get a point on the board, beating Petersen 4-0 in Frankfurt, hitting a 118 finish and 50 percent of his doubles, before Chisnall also wrapped up a comfortable whitewash win over Oliver to put England into the last eight.
“We didn’t want it to go to Doubles tonight, so I had to get the job done to start and then Dave had to finish it off,” said Lewis, a four-time winner alongside Phil Taylor.
“It’s a massive bonus for us that we get on so well, we’re up there and have a good laugh and just relax. We’re here as a team and I really do think we’ve got a great chance of winning this."
World Cup debutant Chisnall added: "Adrian made that easy for me because he won the first game so the pressure was off me and I could relax.
“I’ve been relaxed all week and I’m really enjoying this so far, hopefully I can carry on enjoying it tomorrow."
England will face Austria in the last eight after Mensur Suljovic steamrolled John Part 4-0 to set up a comfortable victory for his country, with the three-time World Champion not having a dart at a double in the contest.
Suljovic’s partner Rowby-John Rodriguez also eased past his opponent John Norman Jnr as Austria cruised in to the quarter-finals.
Tournament favourites Netherlands were pushed to a doubles decider after Larry Butler defeated Raymond van Barneveld in style.
World number one Michael van Gerwen was made to work for his 4-2 win over America’s Darin Young in the opening Singles tie of the contest.
Young missed two darts at doubles in the opening leg of the match to break the Van Gerwen throw, before missing more in the third to do the same.
With the match on throw going in to the sixth leg of the encounter, Van Gerwen hit a 140 and a 134 to leave him a dart at tops, which he took at the second attempt.
In the second match, Butler upset the odds to beat five-time World Champion Van Barneveld to take the match to a doubles clash.
Butler raced in to a 3-0 lead by taking out 120 and then 109 in successive legs to take control.
Van Barneveld mustered a fightback to close the gap to a single leg before missing the bullseye for a 130 finish to draw level, and the American then pinned a delightful 95 finish on the bullseye to wrap up what seemed an unlikely victory.
In the Doubles decider though, the Dutch pairing showed their class in the doubles - averaging 111.33 to seal an eight-minute whitewash victory and book a last eight meeting with host nation Germany.
“Neither of us were at our best in the Singles, but we showed our class in the Pairs,” said Van Gerwen.
“We are the favourites for this tournament and we have to start acting like favourites. I can’t wait to play Germany tomorrow and I believe we can go on to win this.”
Van Barneveld added: “I’ve known Larry for a long time and he is a great player. I’m just glad we got over the line the doubles.”
The German team booked a place in the quarter-finals for a third time in the tournament's history, after defeating debutants Brazil 2-0.
Martin Schindler had no trouble in defeating Alexandre Sattin 4-0 in Frankfurt to put Germany in a commanding position.
Former World Youth Champion Max Hoop then delivered an impressive 4-1 win as he confirmed Germany’s victory, including a delightful first leg 161 finish.
“The whole country is behind us. This is such an amazing feeling to be playing in a home World Cup,” said Hopp after his victory.
“We were really nervous before the game, we don’t want to let our country down and none of the teams here want to do that either.
"We act like a team, we travel together as a team and we want to win as a team. We are both young and this is such an amazing experience.”
The Singapore pairing of Paul Lim and Harith Lim produced another excellent display to move in to the last eight for the first time.
The duo team took on Spain hoping to repeat the performance that saw them defeat number one seeds Scotland on the opening night.
A Doubles match was needed to separate the teams after Paul Lim beat Antonio Alcinas 4-0 before Cristo Reyes overcame Harith Lim in a 4-1 victory.
The Singapore duo showed their class in the decider, punishing Spain for some sloppy darts and missed doubles, running out 4-0 winners.
“We are so happy," said 63-year-old Lim. "Beating Scotland was amazing and to win again today with the crowd singing our names was incredible.
“We’ll take it one step at a time. Scotland and Spain are great teams and so are Belgium so we will just see what happens.”
2013 finalists Belgium made it in to the quarter-finals despite Kim Huybrechts missing 17 darts at doubles as he overcame Ioannis Selachoglou 4-2 in their tie's opener.
Ronny Huybrechts then sealed Belgium’s path in to the quarter-finals with a stunning 4-0 victory over John Michael, with his average of 115.62 being the highest ever by a Belgian on television.
Younger brother Kim said: “Ronny was brilliant, it’s a different set-up today and the Singles worked for us. He had a 115 average, so if he can do that for the whole tournament I can put my feet up.”
Ronny, who has made two ProTour finals in the last eight months, spoke of needing to be more consistent, saying: "I can play matches like that but then average 80 in the next game It’s all in my head and I know when I’m playing well and finding the treble with the first dart, I can be dangerous.”
Mark Webster helped move Wales in to Sunday’s final day of action, taking out 81 on the bull to see off William O’Connor in a 4-3 win.
Earlier, Gerwyn Price had given Wales a winning start in their encounter with the Republic of Ireland as he overcame Mick McGowan 4-3 despite missing eight match darts - with the Irish ace unable to take five match darts of his own.
“It got a bit messy and we just about managed to get over the line,” said Webster.
UK Open finalist Price added: “It’s nice to play well and win but its sometimes it’s good to win when you’ve played badly.”
Wales will now face Russia after Aleksandr Oreshkin and Boris Koltsov upset the odds to take out fifth seeds Australia in a Doubles decider.
Oreshkin caused a shock as he defeated Kyle Anderson 4-2 in the opening match of the tie.
This left Simon Whitlock, still nursing an injured wrist, to level the score by beating Boris Koltsov 4-1.
The Russian pair then confirmed the victory in the Doubles, with Oreshkin taking out 81 on the bull for a 3-0 lead before Koltsov sealed an unlikely whitewash win as they moved into the quarter-finals for the first time.
The £300,000 tournament concludes on Sunday, with the afternoon session's quarter-finals followed in the evening session by the semi-finals and final.
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Betway World Cup of Darts
Saturday June 3
Second Round
Afternoon Session
Belgium v Greece
Singles One: Kim Huybrechts 4-2 Ioannis Selachoglou
Singles Two: Ronny Huybrechts 4-0 John Michael
Doubles: R Huybrechts/K Huybrechts v Selachoglou/Michael - Not needed
Final Result : Belgium 2-0 Greece
Wales v Republic of Ireland
Singles One : Gerwyn Price 4-3 Mick McGowan
Singles Two: Mark Webster 4-3 William O'Connor
Doubles: Price/Webster v McGowan/O'Connor - Not needed
Final Result: Wales 2-0 Republic of Ireland
Australia v Russia
Singles One: Kyle Anderson 2-4 Aleksandr Oreshkin
Singles Two: Simon Whitlock 4-1 Boris Koltsov
Doubles: Anderson/Whitlock 0-4 Oreshkin/Koltsov
Final Result: Australia 1-2 Russia
Singapore v Spain
Singles One: Paul Lim 4-0 Antonio Alcinas
Singles Two: Harith Lim 1-4 Cristo Reyes
Doubles: Lim/Lim 4-0 Alcinas/Reyes
Final Result: Singapore 2-1 Spain
Evening Session
Austria v Canada
Singles One: Mensur Suljovic 4-0 John Part
Singles Two: Rowby-John Rodriguez 4-1 John Norman Jnr
Doubles: Suljovic/Rodriguez v Part/Norman Jnr - Not needed
Result: Austria 2-0 Canada
Germany v Brazil
Singles One: Martin Schindler 4-0 Alexandre Sattin
Singles Two: Max Hopp 4-1 Diogo Portella
Doubles: Schindler/Hopp v Sattin/Portella - Not needed
Result: Germany 2-0 Brazil
England v South Africa
Singles One: Adrian Lewis 4-0 Devon Petersen
Singles Two: Dave Chisnall 4-0 Deon Oliver
Doubles: Lewis/Chisnall v Petersen/Oliver - Not needed
Result: England 2-0 South Africa
Netherlands v United States of America
Singles One: Michael van Gerwen 4-2 Darin Young
Singels Two: Raymond van Barneveld 2-4 Larry Butler
Doubles: Van Gerwen/Van Barneveld 4-0 Young/Butler
Result: Netherlands 2-1 United States of America