Eagle eyed Gary Anderson spots one key thing at Darts World Cup practice

Pumped-up Gary Anderson insists Scotland remain Darts World Cup underdogs.

The Tartan hero and partner Peter Wright stormed into the quarter-finals with a thumping 8-2 success over Poland’s Krzysztof Ratajski and Radek Szaganski. Scotland now face Sweden in the last eight and the duo, who won the event five years ago, are strong title contenders. But Anderson is playing it down with other emerging countries lifting their standards as he said: “Listen, talk away, we are underdogs and we’ll play darts and see what happens.

“A lot of teams come with high hopes. I’ve been watching the Philippines and all these teams for years. I said to Peter last night when we were having a throw. They are getting better and better and better. It will soon get to a stage where they are going to be as good as any other player. They are not far away from it just now. I was a wee bit nervous up on stage. It’s been a few months. These lads do it all the time now. I used to do it all the time. But when you get up again it’s a different feeling. It soon comes back to you.”

Wright took charge as the Scots reeled off the first five legs and Anderson said: “When we went 4-0 up, I was like: What’s happening here. Peter started off brilliant, it was good.

“Against Poland, they are a tidy team. Like I say Peter was banging them in, not to worry. It’s the same about the football, it’s always about England and it never comes good so why worry about it? That was a bit of banter by the way!”

Scotland lost the Final 12 months ago when hammered by Wales, but are out to go one better this time.

Anderson smiled: “It was always going to be a tough game against Gerwyn [Price] and Jonny [Clayton}. But Jonny was on fire. I’ve still not spoken to him since!”

Swedish pair Jeffrey de Graaf and Oskar Lukasiak set up the date with the Scots after beating Czechia.