It was a lovely darts fight between the two 51-year-old Scots. Both Wright and Anderson scored wildly and made sure that caller George Noble had to call out the maximum score no less than 39 times. A record, because never before has so many 180s been thrown in a match and no one has managed to throw more than 22 times 180 individually; Wright threw a total of 24, breaking Anderson’s record.
However, not many people expected that it would turn out to be a spectacle after Wright’s 3-0 lead in sets. But the large deficit was brushed away by Anderson to 3-2 and then he followed Wright, who almost made the fourth nine-darter of the tournament but stranded on double 12. Remarkable: barely 24 hours before that he was also one arrow short of a perfect leg against Callan Rydz.
After that, the game just got better and better. Anderson kept in Wright’s trail but failed to come alongside. Wright, meanwhile, made no mistake, remained icy cool and sharp on the doubles. In the tenth set with a 5-4 lead for Wright – in Wright’s set – Anderson finally seemed to equalize, but he then gave up a 2-1 lead in legs. In an all-or-nothing leg for Anderson, both darters started with a 180 score, but it was Wright who topped a 116 finish to secure a final against Smith. bully boy won 6-3 against James Wade earlier in the evening.
“What a match this was”, Wright sighed afterwards at RTL7. “My goal was to reach the final, I succeeded. I hope I can sleep for a few hours tonight,” said Wright, who barely wanted to go back. watching the legendary match but was already in his head at the final. “If I play like today, I have a chance,” he concluded with a sense of understatement.
It will be Wright’s second World Cup final. In 2014 he lost 4-7 to Michael van Gerwen, in 2020 he outmaneuvered the same Van Gerwen 7-3 in sets. Smith made it to the final once: in 2019 he lost to Van Gerwen (3-7). Smith defeated two top favorites Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton on his way to the final.
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