Day five at the Darts World Championships in London Alexandra Palace: Michael van Gerwen is competing, Ricardo Pietreczko is also there. And Dragutin Horvat, who previously couldn’t do anything with darts.
The late schedules this Tuesday (December 19, 2023) will be particularly interesting for German darts fans. Germany’s best thrower, Ricardo Pietreczko, is there. Things are also starting for Michael van Gerwen. And then there is Dragutin Horvat, his path to the window was a strange one.
Horvat actually works as a warehouse clerk in Kassel, but he had to apply for vacation for the World Cup. Of course he got it. Horvat, 47, nicknamed “Hercules”, was already in London in 2017, but failed in round one. This time it should be different, it would be the highlight of a darts career that he actually had no desire for.
Horvat actually wanted to watch football, not play darts
It all started with Horvat and darts with a visit to a pub. Horvat came to watch football. The men at the next table had come to play darts. They were missing a teammate, so they asked Horvat. He didn’t feel like it, but at some point he threw it anyway. He won’t have regretted it.
Horvat recently told the story sometimes, including to the radio station “FFH”. He said: “They tried to persuade me for hours – I didn’t want to, I was too stupid to throw any arrows in there, pick them up again, and then throw them in again.”
An overview of Tuesday’s fixtures:
1.30 p.m.:
Ian White vs. Tomoya Goto
Ritchie Edhouse vs. Jeffrey de Graaf
Keegan Brown vs. Boris Krcmar
James Wade vs. Matt Campbell
8 p.m.:
Steve Beaton vs. Wessel Nijman
Mike De Decker vs. Dragutin Horvat
Ricardo Pietreczko vs Mikuru Suzuki
Michael van Gerwen vs. Keane Barry