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Great Britain Demolish Dutch To Face Slovakia In World Cup Semis

Report by Nick Teale - Matchroom Multi Sport
All photography - ©Taka Wu/Matchroom Multi Sport

QUARTER-FINALS
Slovakia 9-8 Japan
Great Britain 9-1 Netherlands

Great Britain’s Karl Boyes and Darren Appleton rolled back the years with an emphatic 9-1 World Cup quarter-final victory over Netherlands to advance to the semi-finals, where Slovakia lie in wait after a hill-hill win over Japan.

Boyes and Appleton, winners in 2014 when they beat Netherlands in a dramatic final, were late call-ups to the event after Canada suffered from travel issues. After beating South Africa and Greece, the pair originally called Great Britain ‘C’ were the only host nation team remaining.

An enthralling opening-rack safety battle finally ended when an Appleton jump untied the 3 and 8 from the side rail, and Bijsterbosch’s subsequent jump removed both the 1 and the 3. That wasn’t the end, though, and when Feijen missed a bank on the 4, it was Great Britain who were able to clear to take the lead.

A break and run doubled the hosts’ advantage and they moved 3-0 up in the third. Netherlands had a chance in the fourth but when Feijen missed a 4, Great Britain pulled further away. A break and run took them to 5-0, and rack six also went the way of the 2014 champions.

The Dutch returned to the table in rack 7 after Appleton played poor position to the 4, leaving Boyes no option but to go safe. It was Britain’s first error of the match and they were made to pay when Appleton’s next shot, a cut on the 4, failed to find the pocket and Netherlands cleared to finally get on the board.

But that proved to be the only miss of the match from Great Britain, who took the next three racks for an unlikely place in the semi-finals.

“It is unbelievable,” said Boyes. “The deeper these events go, even though it’s been a long time, we have plenty of experience together and you can smell blood.

“We know how well the Dutch have played this week but it’s a quarter-final and they knew how much experience we had. Our game plan and the way we communicated, it was spot on.”

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