The 1st lady of darts was the star performer in the 1st Round of the World Cup in a snow-bound North East!
Team Unicorn’s Anastasia Dobromyslova was in terrific form, as she led Russia into the 2nd Round, with a 6-4 victory over Gibraltar at the Rainton Meadows Arena.
It’s been some 24 hours for Ana, after Russia won the bid for 2018 football World Cup and now she excelled as Russia lined up ma 2nd Round clash with Scotland.
“It was a great experience and I really enjoyed it,” she said. “To hit the winning dart as well!”
Anastasia bounced back in style from the double disappointment of failing to reach the final of this year’s Women’s World Championship and losing out in the final of the Russian qualifier for the Alexandra Palace.
She proved yet again that she is a class act on the oche!
Anastasia and her partner Roman Konchikov were 3-2 and 4-3 down against the Gibraltar pairing of Dylan Duo and Dyson Parody.
But Ana hit six 140s and one 180 in the match, as the Russians stormed back to win the last three legs.
And after Konchikov had missed two darts to win the match, up stepped Anastasia to nail D4 to set up the showdown with Gary Anderson and Robert Thornton in that 2nd Round….
The other Team Unicorn player in 1st Round action was Mick McGowan. He and William O’Connor took Ireland into the 2nd Round thanks to a 6-3 victory over Slovakia.
The Irish will take on the might of Australia in round two. The Aussies of course, represented by Simon Whitlock and Unicorn’s Paul Nicholson….
England remain the favourites and the Unicorn duo of Phil Taylor and James Wade will fly the flag against Spain in the 2nd Round.
The Cash Converters World Cup of Darts 1st Round results:
Finland 2-6 Belgium
Austria 6-4 Denmark
New Zealand 6-2 Poland
Russia 6-4 Gibraltar
Sweden 6-2 Slovenia
Spain 6-3 Japan
Republic of Ireland 6-3 Slovakia
Germany - BYE
Friday night 2nd Round:
Canada v Belgium
USA v Sweden
Northern Ireland v Austria
Wales v New Zealand
Scotland v Russia
Netherlands v Germany
England v Spain
Australia v Republic of Ireland
By STUART PYKE at the PDC World Cup of Darts
Photo courtesy Lawrence Lustig / PDC