Devon Petersen made a mess of his maths at 2012 World Cup of Darts
Monday 2 November 2020 12:22, UK
With the World Cup of Darts just days away, Sky Sports expert Rod Studd recalls how Devon Petersen was left red-faced at the 2012 tournament.
England's pairing of Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis will attempt to retain the trophy at the 2016 World Cup of Darts in Frankfurt, live on Sky Sports.
Studd casts his mind back four years to a quarter-final clash between South Africa and Wales...
Live World Cup of Darts
World Cup 2012 quarter-finals, Devon Petersen & Shawn Hogan (SA) v Mark Webster & Richie Burnett (Wal)
The singles were split, Webster had beaten Hogan and Petersen had beaten Burnett 4-3 so it all came down to the doubles for a place in the semi-final.
It went to 3-3 and a deciding leg - Webster missed the bullseye to win, leaving 25, and Petersen needed to take out 61 for South Africa to win. He went for 25 to leave double 18 but it started to go wrong when he hit 12 accidentally with his first dart.
That left him 49 and for some reason, Devon had got it into his head that he wanted 39, so instead of 17 for double 16 he went for seven which immediately started the alarm bells ringing. You are thinking, 'Oh no, he has miscounted here'.
And then he hits double 16! Which makes it worse. If he had missed double 16 he would not have felt half as bad but he hit double 16, plum on, and expected to hear announcer Russ Bray shout, 'Game, shot and the match... South Africa'.
But instead he turns around and hears Russ go '51', which mortified Devon. And Richie then went on to hit nine, double eight and knock them out.
Richie was very magnanimous afterwards because everyone loves Devon - he is a thoroughly nice young man and if it was to happen to anybody you would not have wanted it to happen to Devon Petersen.
While there is a sort of comedy value to it, it was sad too as nobody wants to lose like that and nobody really wants to win like that either so Wales had to take advantage, but everyone felt for Devon.
It was just one of those odd things and it happened in the deciding leg so there was no time for Devon and his team-mate Hogan to recover.
That was one of the most infamous moments the World Cup has thrown up and 2012 was also the event where the final went to the deciding leg as well.
It was England v Australia, it was Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis against Paul Nicholson and Simon Whitlock. It went to a last leg where every single player had a chance to win - it was the most ridiculous conclusion
Nicholson missed a couple of darts to win, then Taylor missed a couple of darts to win - this was all in the same leg!
Then Whitlock blew it when he wanted 20 with three darts and went single 10, single five before Adrian Lewis stepped up to hit double 10 to win.
It was a funny sort of year, with Devon's disaster sort of matched by Nicholson, Taylor and Whitlock in the final.
You can follow the World Cup of Darts on Sky Sports this week, the action gets underway on Thursday at 7pm on Sky Sports 1 with the final on Sunday at 7pm. Or watch from £6.99 without a contract, on NOW TV.
