What if there had been another opponent? The darts professional Florian Hempel from Cologne just played an excellent match at the World Championships in London. In the middle of the second set, former handball goalkeeper Hempel had an average score of 106 points per three darts thrown. A world class value in the “Ally Pally”. Hempel’s problem, however, was that a Brit named Stephen Bunting was throwing arrows with him on stage. Because FC Liverpool fan Bunting had an even better rate than Hempel.
From a German perspective, the eleventh day of the Darts World Cup in London continued as day ten had begun and ended: with defeats by the best Germans in the dart throwing industry against obviously even better English representatives. Martin Schindler lost a 3:4 thriller against Scott Williams on Wednesday, Gabriel Clemens lost 1:4 against Dave Chisnall, and on Thursday evening Ricardo Pietreczko finally canceled his match – after a wild 3:4 against Luke Humphries.
And surprise man Hempel also lost his third round game against the aforementioned Stephen Bunting, in the end clearly 0:4.
The “Kölsche Jung”, as his supporters call him, reacted disappointed but prepared for his departure. “If the timing isn’t right, it’s difficult,” said Hempel on Sport1: “It was a great game, very intense up there on the stage. But to lose so clearly is tough.” He “absorbed” the chants of the “very fair” audience.
In round two, Hempel had pushed the favored Belgian Dimitri van den Bergh out of the tournament 3-2 after being 0-2 behind and thus secured a place in the top 64 for the coming season, the so-called Tour Card. The 33-year-old ultimately had no chance against Bunting. In the end, Hempel had an average score of 94, the 38-year-old Bunting had 101. It was clear that Hempel was on stage with one of the currently strongest darts players in the world.
On Friday, “The Bullet” Bunting will play in the round of 16 against tournament favorite Michael van Gerwen. It is no longer so clear whether van Gerwen is the favorite against this bunting.