1993 WDF World Cup IX - Dames

Published at 01/06/2020

The ninth WDF World Cup is played for the second time in the largest gambling city of the world; Las Vegas. In 1979 WDF World Cup II was also held there, back then with only men's teams. Just like two years ago in Zandvoort Netherlands, there were 32 countries in the men’s competition. In the ladies, 26 countries started for their sixth WDF World Cup Darts.


Traditionally, there are relatively many Caribbean countries when playing in North America. There are also three debuting countries; The Czech Republic, Hungary and South Africa have joined the WDF World Cup family. The Sahara Hotel is the place to be from 13 to 16 October, just like 14 years ago. That does not apply to a lot of trusted names. This WDF World Cup goes down in history as the first after the split, with a large number of top players having set up their own darts association, later known as the PDC.

Ladies Pairs tournament
In the ladies pairs event, the countries were divided into groups for the first time. In a round-robin they all played each other in the group. The top two pairs from each group qualified for the last 16 where the knocked-out phase started. In the last sixteen was one big surprise. Lucy Jemtai & Mary Njogu from Kenya qualified for the quarterfinals by beating Joan Flynn and Sharon O'Brien from the Republic of Ireland 4-1.

The Kenyan ladies produced a lot of good scores but had some problems on the doubles otherwise they certainly would have been closer in the quarterfinals where the ladies from Kenya were defeated 4-1 by Sandra Greatbatch & Rhian Speed from Wales. The Finns won the Scandinavian battle 4-2 over Denmark. The Dutch duo Francis Hoenselaar & Valerie Maytum had to work hard to beat the ladies from the USA, Kathy Maloney & Stacey Bromberg. Their fanatical fans supported team USA, but the Orange ladies eventually won it. The English pair Mandy Solomons & Sue Talbot did not have it easy either against the Australian players Carol Forwood & Christine Clarke, but narrowly won 4-3. I

In the semi-finals the English ladies defeated the ladies from Wales 4-3. The Dutch tandem had experienced less difficulty in their semi-final and beat Finland’s Paivi Jussila & Sirpa Levanen 4-1. In the final, the English ladies led 2-0 after legs in 19 and 16 darts, but the next three legs went to the Netherlands in 23, 23 and 21 darts. The longer the game lasted the more the nerves set in with both pairs. Solomons and Talbot forced a deciding leg and took a comfortable lead in it, but 11 match darts were not enough to win the title. The Dutch ladies, who were also clearly nervous, eventually did find the winning double and Francis Hoenselaar & Valerie Maytum crowned themselves as WDF World Cup Pairs champions. The first ever gold for the Netherlands in the ladies pairs.

Ladies Singles tournament
In the singles the English ladies were eliminated early. The two American ladies stole the show as they both reached the semi-finals. In those semi-finals Stacy Bromberg had a 4-0 over Norwegian Karin Nordhal, the very slow throwing Kathy Maloney also won, 4-1 against Northern Ireland’s Rhonda Henry.

A very enthusiastic crowd followed the All-American final. The contest was very evenly matched with very impressive darts. The level was often even better than that of the men's final. Maloney won the fifth leg in 15 darts with a 141 finish and took a 3-2 lead. Yet Bromberg came back, her first 12 darts in the sixth leg; 140, 125, 100 and 82 leaving 54. However, she would not get a chance at it as Maloney had begun the leg and scored 140, 100, 55, 150 and a 66 finish. Kathy Maloney was the third lady from the USA who won the WDF World Cup singles after she already had been runner-up six years back.

Ladies Overall classification
The overall title went to the USA for the second time in history, after Copenhagen in 1987, with 44 points. Stacy Bromberg and Kathy Maloney put the gold around their necks. The Dutch ladies Francis Hoenselaar & Valerie Maytum also finish second for the second time with 39 points, just like in 1987. England with Mandy Solomons and Sue Talbot take the bronze with 24 points. The Finnish and Northern Irish ladies share fourth place with 18 points.

Overall ranking
1 - 44 points USA
2 - 39 points Netherlands
3 - 24 points England
4 - 18 points Finland/ Northern Ireland
6 - 15 points Wales
7 - 13 points Norway
8 - 10 points Australia/ Denmark/ Ireland
11 - 9 points New Zealand
12 - 6 points Germany/ Kenya
14 - 3 points Belgium/ Canada/ Japan/ Scotland/ Sweden
19 - 1 point Italy
20 - 0 points Bahamas/ Bermuda/ Brazil/ Czech Rep/ France/ Hungary/ Switzerland