Stephen Bunting only fought his way into the second round of the Darts World Cup after extra time. However, that doesn’t change his objective. He is already talking about defending his title next year. He had just beaten Luke Littler.
It all looked like an easy gallop. Stephen Bunting was 2-0 up in his opening match at the World Darts Championship against Poland’s Sebastian Bialecki, having only lost two legs up to that point and averaging an incredible 119 points in the first round.
But Stephen Bunting knew better: “I felt great. But when you play at Ally Pally you go through all the emotions,” the world number four said later. As the playing time increased, more and more doubts crept into the convincing performance. In the final phase, the Englishman was even on the verge of elimination and needed external help in order to successfully fend off his opponent’s final offensive.
“The first match of the tournament is always the hardest. And two years ago I would have lost the game. But it wasn’t the experience that helped me. It was the fans. I had great support from the audience and my family – and then the Ally Pally Wasp came along,” said Bunting later.
The computer scientist from Poland, who has always been a model of calmness and rationality, came up, managed to balance the sentence and didn’t even notice that the insect had settled on his shoulder towards the end of the fourth sentence.
As Bialecki got closer and closer to Bunting on the scoreboard, the wasp crawled up the collar. When the 22-year-old even took the 2-1 lead in the decisive fifth set, the little plane touched the Pole’s neck, who then removed the animal – and lost his focus.
Bunting fought, made it 2-2 and made it into the first extra time of this World Cup. Unlike in previous years, the “two clear leg rule” already applies in round one. If the score is 2:2, play continues in the deciding set until one player has a two-leg lead. The deciding leg only follows when the score is 5:5.
A rule change that the stage technicians had apparently gotten through. After Bunting checked to make it 3-2, fountains sprayed golden sparks into the air. The usual signs of victory, which was only perfect after the third match dart on double 18 in the following leg.
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“For whatever reason I fell asleep after the second set. But I’m also very happy that I was able to dig myself out of my hole again,” said Bunting, summing up his performance, which, despite the close outcome, delivered passable results with an average of 96.39 points and 50 percent on the doubles.
“I’m happy with the beginning and very happy with the end,” said Bunting, who has also defined an ambitious goal for this World Cup. Like every year, it’s all about the title for him.
“I don’t have to ask myself if I can win this tournament. I just have to show my game,” he believes. He recently beat defending champion and top favorite Luke Littler at an exhibition. “I will do everything in my power to win this World Cup. I’m 40 years old now and I don’t have that much time left.”
Bunting was even looking forward to next year, when the World Cup would take place in front of a larger audience after moving to the Great Hall. “I’m looking forward to defending my title.”
If Lutz Wöckener Not exactly trying out any sport on his own, he writes about darts and sports politics, but sometimes also about offbeat things like football.
Darts World Cup 2026, results, 1st round
- Ritchie Edhouse (ENG/27) – Jonny Tata (NZL) 0:3 (2:3, 1:3)
- Dom Taylor (ENG) – Oskar Lukasiak (SWE) 3:0 (3:0, 3:0, 3:1)
- Richard Veenstra (NED) – Nitin Kumar (IND) 2:3 (1:3, 3:0, 2:3, 3:0, 1:3)
- Joe Cullen (ENG/32) – Bradley Brooks (ENG) 3:0 (3:1, 3:0, 3:1)
- Lukas Wenig (D) – Wesley Plaisier (NED) 1:3 (0:3, 3:2, 2:3, 1:3)
- Dimitri van den Bergh (BEL/23) – Darren Beveridge (SCO) 0:3 (0:3, 1:3, 0:3)
- Stephen Bunting (ENG/4) – Sebastian Bialecki (POL) 3:2 n.V. (3:1, 3:1, 0:3, 1:3, 4:2)
- James Hurrell (ENG) – Stowe Buntz (USA) 3:1 (3:2, 1:3, 3:1, 3:2)
