Wales Duo Gerwyn Price And Jonny Clayton Start World Cup Campaign With A Russian Whitewash

By Gareth James

Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton launched their bid for the World Cup of Darts crown with a crushing 5-0 whitewash of Russia.

The Wales duo showed why they are the bookies’ favourites for the title with an impressive first-round display.

Second-seeds Wales will now face defending champions Scotland in the last 16 in Austria on Saturday.

Price hit four maximums and Clayton chipped in with one as they saw off the Russian duo of Boris Koltsov & Aleksei Kadochnikov.

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“It’s a great honour to represent Wales again,” said Price, before the opening match at the Salzburgarena where he won the World Series of Darts title in September.

“Jonny is coming into some good form at the right time of year and I’ve been playing well recently.

“In other tournaments, if I lose I disappoint myself more than anything, but this time there’s a lot more expectation and pressure I think.

“Hopefully we can both play well together, do Wales proud and bring the trophy home.

Jonny Clayton reached second round with Gerwyn Price.

Price was runner-up in the World Cup in 2017 while Wales were also beaten finalists in 2010.

The Markham thrower added: “Mark Webster keeps reminding Jonny that me, Barrie Bates and Mark have all played in World Cup finals and he hasn’t.

“Hopefully we can get there this time and if we could win it then Jonny can turn the tables.”

Scotland beat Japan 5-3 in their first-round match.

But the duo of John Henderson and Robert Thornton have replaced world champ Peter Wright and Gary Anderson who won the event 12 months ago.