Cameron Menzies suffers World Darts Championship heartbreak as another Scot eliminated in bizzarre fashion
A round-up of the action from the World Darts Championship at Ally Pally so far.
The World Darts Championship 2025 has begun but it has been a rocky start to the tournament for Scottish hopefuls.
Gary Anderson will kick off his tournament this week and is one of the favourites after a strong 2024. Peter Wright meanwhile will be getting into the thick of things shortly as the Livingston-born thrower looks to put a difficult year at the oche behind him.
On Tuesday during day two, there were shocks as James Wade became the first seeded player to exit at Alexandra Palace. And two Scottish players were in competition, Alan Soutar and Cameron Menzies
Soutar is out of the competition after an odd encounter Kai Gotthardt. A firefighter from Arbroath, he was swept aside 3-1 during a delayed clash after the German’s dart snapped in the opening set. The German reeled off seven successive legs to put the game beyond Soutar.
For Menzies, he came into London looking to build on confidence found on the stage after making the Grand Slam quarter-final. World number 130 Leonard Gates came out on top in a 3-1 win where the Menzies struggled on the outer ring, and he looked distraught as the game progressed. He then wiped away tears in the latter stages of his first-round loss.
His dad has been in hospital in the build-up to this tournament and afterwards, the 39th ranked player in the world posted a photo of his father in a hospital bed, with the message: "I didn't wanna post this, man... my dad, my hero."
Peter Wright kicks off his campaign on Tuesday at Round 2 against Wesley Plaiser.