Andreas Harrysson is two sets away from changing his life forever at the Darts World Cup. But the Swedish factory worker lacks nerve. Another outsider has never heard of this problem. He shows an almost perfect game.
He comes “from the middle of nowhere,” as Andreas Harrysson describes his Swedish homeland. His path almost led him right into the limelight of the darts world. Harrysson was two sets away from changing his life forever in the round of 16 of the World Darts Championship on his debut at Ally Pally. If he beat Welshman Jonny Clayton, the Swede with the distinctive beard would have earned £100,000. Enough prize money to jump into the top 64 in the world rankings. In the end things turned out differently, Clayton won 4-2.
A German darts professional can breathe a sigh of relief with this result. With Harrysson out, it is clear that Lukas Wenig will be able to keep his card for the professional tour. Wenig failed in the first round of the World Cup in mid-December against Wesley Plaisier (1:3). Since then he has been on the hot seat for 16 days. Although it was considered very unlikely that he would slip out of the top 64, Harrysson as well as Justin Hood and Charlie Manby would have had to win their round of 16 games.
The case of Dom Taylor, who was excluded from the World Cup after a positive doping test, is also unclear. In case of doubt, Wenig could have benefited from a possible loss of prize money or the removal of the Englishman’s tour card. The fact that it doesn’t even get that far should be a relief for Wenig.
Little had put himself in a position to defend the tour card by the end of the year thanks to his quarter-finals at the Grand Slam and qualification for the World Cup. He earned £28,500 for the Grand Slam and £15,000 for the short World Cup. Little is ranked 62nd in the live world rankings.
Harrysson, on the other hand, should be annoyed. He had put his Welsh opponent under pressure from the start. Five out of six sets went the full distance, the Swede was ice cold until the score was 2:2, especially in the doubles. Clayton, on the other hand, never reached his top level – and was lucky that Harrysson lacked the nerve. The Swede missed more than half a dozen attempts to take a 3-2 lead. In the following set he would have had to break Clayton to equalize. He didn’t succeed.
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Harrysson will have to continue earning his stones in a factory in Sweden for the time being. “We make house facades and window frames. I’m at the machines,” Harrysson revealed after his victory against the German Ricardo Pietreczko a round earlier. He’s been doing this for two years. He likes his work. But the dream of professional darts hovers above everything, said Harrysson. He could fulfill it at the beginning of January. Then he will play again at the Q-School in Kalkar for a ticket to the professional tour.
The English outsider Justin Hood has already fulfilled his dream. As a blatant underdog, he played an almost perfect game against Northern Irishman Josh Rock. Hood, number 86 in the world, converted all of his first 11 darts into doubles. He almost played a perfect game, but missed his twelfth arrow to win. Nevertheless, Hood won 4-0 a short time later. His opponent looked on in disbelief at this performance in the background and had to acknowledge his defeat with a smile.
Hood had already announced that if he won the prize money he would make his dream of owning a Chinese restaurant come true. He can now implement this. “Who wants Chinese food?” he asked the audience at Alexandra Palace animatedly. At the press conference he explained his plans: “I think I no longer have a choice. We’re at that point now.” But he doesn’t have a timetable for opening the restaurant yet. “We’ll see after the end of the World Cup,” said Hood.
Darts World Cup 2026, results round of 16
Luke Woodhouse (ENG/25) – Krzysztof Ratajski (POL) 2:4
Jonny Clayton (WAL/5) – Andreas Harrysson (SWE) 4:2
Justin Hood (ENG) – Josh Rock (NIR/11) 4:0
from 8:15 p.m.:
Charlie Manby (ENG) – Gian van Veen (NED/10)
Michael van Gerwen (NED/3) – Gary Anderson (SCO/14)
Luke Humphries (ENG/2) – Kevin Doets (NED)
Luca Wiecek is sports editor for WELT. He will be reporting from Alexandra Palace in London until New Year’s Eve.
