Josh Rock & Daryl Gurney seal maiden World Cup of Darts win for Northern Ireland
Lewis Watson 
Northern Ireland landed their first-ever World Cup of Darts win courtesy of Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney's fantastic victory over Wales in Sunday's final.
Despite being the outsiders at betting sites heading into the final, the duo lifted the trophy.
Free Bets darts expert Lewis Watson takes a look back at a thrilling weekend of action in Frankfurt.
A 10-9 win over Wales in a last-leg shootout made history for Northern Ireland.
The Northern Irish duo of Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney made history on Sunday night, becoming just the sixth nation to win the World Cup of Darts beating Wales 10-9 in a memorable final in Germany.
Northern Ireland join England, Netherlands, Wales, Scotland and Australia who have scooped the team title since its inception in 2010, capping off a festival of darts inside Frankfurt's Eissporthalle over the weekend.
The fourth seeds went unbeaten across Saturday and Sunday's play, sweeping aside the likes of South Africa (8-2), Ireland (8-5) and Germany (8-1) before toppling the former two-time world champions Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton in the final.
Trailing 7-5 in the final, Rock and Gurney showed nerves of steel to turn the tide into a 9-7 win, and clung on to win their nation's maiden World Cup of Darts title.
"We've made history for Northern Ireland and we're so proud as a team," said Rock in the post-match interview. "As a team we were fantastic and we fought hard all the way through."
Gurney added: "I would like to congratulate Wales, it shows the class of the Welsh team to stay on stage and congratulate us. Jonny and Gezzy are legends of the game, I think they'll go on and win big titles this year.
"Josh's power scoring was amazing and I was there to clean up the finishing; I was never going to miss the double eight to win the title. I'm so proud of Josh and myself, I put higher regard on this title than any individual events I've won."
Despite Northern Ireland's win, the story of the weekend was the failure of the red-hot favourites, England, who were beaten by hosts Germany 8-4 in the second round.
World number one Luke Humphries and world number two and reigning world champion Luke Littler were humbled in their only outing this weekend, earning criticism from former player and current Sky Sports commentator Wayne Mardle.
"Luke and Luke, no doubt, were feeling the stresses and strains of being massive favourites and to go on about how good Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis were, they just made it look easy - that's how difficult World Cup pairings can be," Mardle stated.
"The pressure got to them at some point, Luke and Luke, and they buckled. Their opponents didn't, and full credit to Martin and Ricardo there. Playing for your country is different from playing for yourself. Playing with a teammate is different from playing just by yourself.
"The rhythm that you get in is different. Luke Humphries having won it last year with Michael Smith, I thought would give him confidence, knowing what it's all about. But when you're under pressure, you're under pressure.
"You can't just think: 'I've been here before, it's fine.' You can't do that."
Next up on the PDC's travelling circus is a trip across the pond to the US Darts Masters and the North American Darts Championship at the end of June, and both Lukes will arrive Stateside with a point to prove!
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