Limerick arrowsmith to represent Republic of Ireland at World Cup of Darts

LIMERICK arrowsmith William O'Connor will once again represent the Republic of Ireland at this month's 2023 World Cup of Dats in Germany.

Cappamore man O'Connor will extend his ever-present record for the Republic of Ireland at the World Cup of Darts when he teams up with Keane Barry for the prestigious event later this month.

O'Connor, nicknamed The Magpie, finished runner-up in the 2019 World Cup of Darts when playing with Carlow's Steve Lennon. Thirty six-year-old O'Connor has a current PDC world ranking of 38.

The 2023 World Cup of Darts will be staged at Frankfurt's Eissporthalle from June 15-18, with an expanded tournament featuring 40 teams and a stg£450,000 prize fund.

A revamped format which will feature a group and knockout stage of all Doubles matches across four days of action, as Australia defend the title they won for the first time in 2022.

The top four ranked nations, based on the lowest cumulative PDC Order of Merit ranking of the two competing players, will be seeded and will enter at the second round stage. The remaining 36 teams will be split into 12 groups of three for the round-robin first round – including 12 seeded nations – from which each group winner will progress.

The second round, featuring the last 16 nations, will be split across two sessions on Saturday June 17 before the quarter-finals take place on Sunday afternoon, with the tournament culminating in the semi-finals and final on Sunday evening – with the eventual champions to earn a combined stg£80,000 in prize money.

2023 World Cup of Darts
Competing Nations & Pairings
Australia - Damon Heta, Simon Whitlock
Austria - Mensur Suljovic, Rowby-John Rodriguez
Bahrain - Basem Mahmood, Abdulnasser Yusuf
Belgium - Dimitri Van den Bergh, Kim Huybrechts
Canada - Matt Campbell, Jeff Smith
China - Xiaochen Zong, Lihao Wen
Croatia - Boris Krcmar, Romeo Grbavac
Czech Republic - Adam Gawlas, Karel Sedlacek
Denmark - Vladimir Andersen, TBC
England - Michael Smith, Rob Cross
Finland - Marko Kantele, TBC
France - Thibault Tricole, Jacques Labre
Germany - Gabriel Clemens, Martin Schindler
Gibraltar - Craig Galliano, Justin Hewitt
Guyana - Norman Madhoo, Sudesh Fitzgerald
Hong Kong - Man Lok Leung, Lok Yin Lee
Hungary - Patrik Kovács, Levente Sárai
Iceland - TBC, TBC
India - Prakash Jiwa, Amit Gilitwala
Italy - Michele Turetta, Massimo Dante
Japan - Jun Matsuda, Tomoya Goto
Latvia - Madars Razma, Dmitriy Zhukov
Lithuania - Darius Labanauskas, TBC
Netherlands - Michael van Gerwen, Danny Noppert
New Zealand - Ben Robb, Warren Parry
Northern Ireland - Brendan Dolan, Daryl Gurney
Philippines - Christian Perez, Lourence Ilagan
Poland - Krzysztof Ratajski, Krzysztof Kciuk
Portugal - Jose de Sousa, Luis Ameixa
Republic of Ireland - William O'Connor, Keane Barry
Scotland - Peter Wright, Gary Anderson
Singapore - Paul Lim, Harith Lim
South Africa - Devon Petersen, Vernon Bouwers
Spain - Jose Justicia, Tony Martinez
Sweden - Dennis Nilsson, Oskar Lukasiak
Switzerland - Stefan Bellmont, Marcel Walpen
Thailand - Attapol Eupakaree, Yong Gaweenuntavong
Ukraine - Vladyslav Omelchenko, Illia Pekaruk
USA - Jules van Dongen, Leonard Gates
Wales - Gerwyn Price, Jonny Clayton