Northern Ireland start Word Cup of Darts with impressive win against South Africa in Frankfurt

Northern Irish pair Josh Rock and Brendan Dolan, the tournament’s sixth seeds, registered a statement win at the Eissporthalle in the first of their three round-robin first-round matches.

The Republic of Ireland, tournament runners-up in 2019, also made a winning start as Keane Barry and William O’Connor secured a 4-2 win against Lithuania.

Home favourites Martin Schindler and Gabriel Clemens raised the venue’s roof with a deciding-frame 4-3 win against New Zealand and Australia breathed a sight of relief as they also won their decider to edge past Japan.

Belgium’s Dimitri Van den Bergh and Kim Huybrechts were given a scare before beating Singapore 4-2, while Portugal upset the United States and Poland overcame Norway, both by the same score.

Boris Krcmar and Romeo Grbavac sealed a 4-0 win for Croatia against Malaysia with a 12-dart final leg and last year’s quarter-finalists France opened with a 4-1 defeat of Latvia.

Sweden and 2021 runners-up Austria white-washed Spain and China respectively and the Czech Republic edged to a 4-3 win against Bahrain.

The top four ranked nations, England, reigning champions Wales, Netherlands and Scotland, will enter the tournament in the second round on Saturday.

The other 36 teams will contest the 12 round-robin groups of three, with the winner from each group progressing to the last 16.