Northern Ireland claim historic first victory at World Cup of Darts
Northern Ireland claimed a historic victory at the 2025 BetVictor World Cup of Darts, defeating Wales 10-9 in a dramatic final in Frankfurt on Sunday.
Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney recovered from 7-5 down to beat Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton in one of the most intense finals in World Cup history.
The deciding leg saw Rock and Gurney throw an 11-dart leg to fend off the challenge of two-time champions Wales to become the sixth nation to claim World Cup glory.
"We've made history for Northern Ireland and we're so proud as a team," said an emotional Rock.
"As a team we were fantastic and we fought hard all the way through."
Gurney added: "I would like to congratulate Wales, it shows the class of the Welsh team to stay on stage and congratulate us."Johnny and Gezzy are legends of the game, I think they'll go on and win big titles this year."Josh's power scoring was amazing and I was there to clean up the finishing; I was never going to miss the double eight to win the title.
"I'm so proud of Josh and myself, I put higher regard on this title than any individual events I've won."Northern Ireland began the day with an 8-5 win over Republic of Ireland in the quarter-finals before thrashing host nation Germany 8-1 in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Wales defeated Hong Kong 8-4 in the quarter-finals before overcoming Netherlands 8-5 in the semi-finals.
"We gave it our all but congaratulations to those two [Rock and Gurney]," said Clayton.
"To be fair to Josh and Daryl they flew out the blocks in the last leg.
"Gezzy is a class act, I'm a proud man to have a teammate like him."
Price added: "We started off really slow, trying to get in the game was really difficult.
"Testament to the Northern Irish team, Josh's scoring was unbelievable and we couldn't keep up with them.
"At 9-9 we gave ourselves a chance but they were a bit better than us and they deserve it."
Northern Ireland become the first new winners of the World Cup of Darts since Australia in 2022, who were defeated 8-7 by host nation Germany in the quarter-finals.
2025 BetVictor World Cup of DartsSunday June 15Afternoon SessionQuarter-FinalsNorthern Ireland 8-5 Republic of IrelandGermany 8-7 AustraliaWales 8-4 Hong KongNetherlands 8-2 Czechia
Evening Session (1900 local time)Semi-FinalsNorthern Ireland 8-1 GermanyWales 8-5 Netherlands
FinalNorthern Ireland 10-9 Wales
