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The PDC World Darts Championship is the biggest event in the sport; it is traditionally called ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ as stated by PDC chairman Barry Hearn. It was first staged following the well documented split in darts with the BDO in 1994 when Dennis Priestley inflicted a rare defeat to Phil Taylor 6-1 at darts new home The Circus Tavern, Purfleet, Essex. The event stayed at the Circus Tavern for 14 years until in 2008 when it moved to the Alexandra Palace, London where it remains. The event is currently sponsored by Ladbrokes.com, but has had many sponsors in its entirety, including Red Band, Vernon’s Pools, Proton Cars and Skol. The 2010 event, for the first time will reach £1 Million with £200,000 going to the winner. Only 4 players have ever won the PDC World Championships Dennis Priestley, Phil Taylor, John Part and Raymond van Barneveld. Of these, only two have won it more than once – Taylor and Part. Phil Taylor has dominated this tournament in particular winning 13 titles and reaching 16 of the first 17 finals. He missed out on the final in 2008, when John Part defeated Kirk Shepherd to win his third world title (second in the PDC). The PDC World Championship has been broadcast live and in its entirety by Sky Sports in the UK since its inception. The tournament has become more and more popular in recent years with the 2007 World Final achieving a viewing figure in excess of 1 million for the first time. Sky’s contract to cover the event has been extended until 2013, which will be the 20th year of the tournament. Sky Television have covered the PDC World Darts Championships since its inception, and is shown around the World on; Dutch broadcaster SBS6, having covered the BDO World Darts Championship for many years, now also covers the event. DSF (Germany), Fox Sports (USA), TSN (Canada), Fox Sports (Australia), SuperSport (South Africa), Ten Sports (India), CCTV (China), Showtime (Middle East), Ukraine TV, Sky New Zealand, IKO (Poland), Starhub (Singapore), Sport1 (Hungary), Meersat (Malaysia), 7TV (Russia), Measat (Indonesia), J Sports (Japan) now also broadcast the event. AVERAGES Prior to the split there had been only three occasions when players had managed to achieve an average of 100 for a match. 102.63 Dennis Priestley (1993, 1st Round) v Jocky Wilson Circus Tavern 111.21 Phil Taylor (2002, 2nd Round) v Shayne Burgess Alexandra Palace The 2008 World Championship, the first at Alexandra Palace was the first time since the 1995 Championship that no player achieved a single match average of 100. The first 100 average was recorded on December 21, 2008 when Andy Hamilton averaged 101.59 in his first round match against Michael Barnard. Below are all winning averages over 100 since the tournament was held at Alexandra Palace. 110.94 Phil Taylor (2009, Final) v Raymond van Barneveld
Year
Champion (average in final)
Score
Runner-Up (average in final)
Sponsor
Prize Money
Venue
Total
Champion
Runner-Up
1994
Dennis Priestley (94.38)6–1
Phil Taylor (90.62)Skol
£64,000
£16,000
£8,000
Circus Tavern, Purfleet
1995
Phil Taylor (94.11)6–2
Rod Harrington (87.15)Proton Cars
£55,000
£12,000
£6,000
1996
Phil Taylor (98.52)6–4
Dennis Priestley (101.49)Vernons
£61,000
£14,000
£7,000
1997
Phil Taylor (100.92)6–3
Dennis Priestley (96.78)Red Band
£98,000
£45,000
£10,000
1998
Phil Taylor (103.98)6–0
Dennis Priestley (90.75)Skol
£71,000
£20,000
1999
Phil Taylor (97.11)6–2
Peter Manley (93.63)£104,000
£30,000
£16,000
2000
Phil Taylor (94.42)7–3
Dennis Priestley (91.80)£110,000
£31,000
£16,400
2001
Phil Taylor (107.46)7–0
John Part (92.58)£124,000
£33,000
£18,000
2002
Phil Taylor (98.47) Peter Manley (91.35)£200,000
£50,000
£25,000
2003
John Part (96.87)7–6
Phil Taylor (99.98)Ladbrokes.com
2004
Phil Taylor (96.03) Kevin Painter (90.48)£256,000
2005
Phil Taylor (96.14)7–4
Mark Dudbridge (90.66)£300,000
£60,000
£30,000
2006
Phil Taylor (106.74)7–0
Peter Manley (91.72)£500,000
£100,000
£50,000
2007
Raymond van Barneveld (100.93)7–6
Phil Taylor (100.86)
2008
John Part (92.86)7–2
Kirk Shepherd (85.10)£605,000
Alexandra Palace, London
2009
Phil Taylor (110.94)7–1
Raymond van Barneveld (101.18)£740,000
£125,000
£60,000
2010
Phil Taylor (104.38)7–3
Simon Whitlock (100.51)£1,000,000
£200,000
£100,000
2011
Adrian Lewis (99.40)7–5
Gary Anderson (99.41)
2012
Adrian Lewis (93.06)7–3
Andy Hamilton (90.83)
2013
Phil Taylor
7-3
Michael van Gerwen
MOST TITLES
Phil Taylor 14 (additional 2 BDO titles, takes total to 15)
MOST FINALS
Phil Taylor 16 (1994-2007 & 2009-2010, 2013 16 of the first 17 PDC World finals)
MOST MATCH WINS
Phil Taylor 93 matches (1994 – 2013). Taylor has only lost five matches at the tournament and reached every final until the 2008 tournament when he was knocked out in the Quarter Final by Wayne Mardle.
LONGEST UNBEATEN RUN
Phil Taylor 44 matches between his loss at the 1994 final and his next defeat the final of 2003.
MOST 180s IN A TOURNAMENT
The 2011 championship saw a record number of 180s scored. The tournament total of 554.
MOST 180s IN A TOURNAMENT (INDIVIDUAL)
Adrian Lewis 60 (2011) which beat Simon Whitlocks record of 58 from 2010.
MOST APPEARENCES
John Lowe 27 years Lowe’s defeat in 2005 World Championship qualifying ended his run of 27 consecutive appearances at the world championships – he failed to qualify for the 2006, 2007 & 2008 events and was the last surviving player from the inaugural world championships in 1978.
MOST CONSECUTIVE APPEARENCES (UNBROKEN)
Phil Taylor 23 Taylor made his World Championship debut in 1990 and is the only player who has been ever-present each year since. Bob Anderson’s run of 25 consecutive appearances ended in 2008.
YOUNGEST PLAYER
Mitchell Clegg 16 years and 37 days Clegg qualified as a 15 year old in 2007. He was younger than Michael van Gerwen who would set the BDO World Championship youngest player record a few weeks later.
YOUNGEST FINALIST
Kirk Shepherd 21 years and 88 days in the 2008 final, Shepherd was two days younger than when Jelle Klaasen won the BDO version. Shepherd however was runner-up. Record TV audience the 2007 final was the first time that Sky television achieved a viewing figure of over 1 million for a darts match. The subscription channel had an audience of 1,028,000 for the van Barneveld v Taylor classic.
SUDDEN DEATH DECIDERS
The PDC World title has twice been decided on a final set, sudden-death leg. In 2004 Kevin Painter took Phil Taylor to 6-6 in sets and 5-5 in legs before Taylor won the match. In 2007, Taylor was on the wrong end of the sudden-death leg in his defeat by Raymond van Barneveld. There have been two finals in the BDO World Championship that have gone to a tie-break.
NINE – DART FINISHES
Raymond van Barneveld was the first person to have thrown a nine-dart finish at the championships. His first came at the quarter-final stage of the 2009 competition against Jelle Klaasen. The second was against Brendan Dolan in the second round of the 2010 tournament. Each time he received a £20,000 bonus prize for his achievement. Adrian Lewis became only the second person to do it, in no less than the 2011 Final, which he went on to win! And Michael van Gerwen hit one on his run to the final in 2013.
BOTH VERSIONS OF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Dennis Priestley was the first player to have won both versions of the World Championship. He won the 1991 BDO Championship and 1994 PDC Championship. Phil Taylor, John Part and Raymond van Barneveld have also matched the feat. Part’s 2008 win meant he was the first player to win world titles at three different venues (Lakeside, Circus Tavern and Alexandra Palace). However in the 2009 PDC World Championship Final, Phil Taylor defeated Raymond van Barneveld at Alexandra Palace to also achieve this feat.
OVERSEAS WORLD CHAMPIONS
John Part was the first player from outside the UK to win the PDC World Championship with his 2003 title, also in 2008 John Part became only the second dart player other than Phil Taylor to win the PDC world title more than once. He was also the first overseas player to win the BDO title in 1994. Tony David was the second overseas champion in 2002 with Raymond van Barneveld the third overseas champion in 2007.
100.80 Phil Taylor (1990, Semi-Final) v Cliff Lazarenko
100.29 Keith Deller (1985, Quarter-Final) v John Lowe (lost match)
An average over 100 in a match at the Circus Tavern in the PDC World Championship was achieved 33 times, compared to only 19 times in the BDO World Championships. This statistic is made even more remarkable by the fact that the BDO tournament has been going on twice as long as the PDC tournament. However, only 6 different men have achieved an average of over 100 in the PDC tournament, compared to 7 different men in the BDO tournament since the split in 1994.
109.00 Phil Taylor (2007, 2nd Round) v Mick McGowan
108.30 Phil Taylor (2006, 3rd Round) v Andy Hamilton
107.46 Phil Taylor (2001, Final) v John Part
106.74 Phil Taylor (2006, Final) v Peter Manley
106.23 Phil Taylor (2007, Semi-Final) v Andy Hamilton
105.87 Phil Taylor (2000, Quarter Final) v Alan Warriner
105.57 Phil Taylor (2006, Quarter Final) v Kevin Painter
105.15 Phil Taylor (2000, Semi Finals) v Dennis Smith
105.03 Phil Taylor (1999, 1st Round) v Reg Harding
103.98 Phil Taylor (1998, Final) v Dennis Priestley
103.80 Phil Taylor (2000, 2nd Round) v Graeme Stoddart
103.44 Phil Taylor (2003, 2nd Round) v Steve Brown
103.38 Richie Burnett (2001, 1st Round) v Steve Brown
103.26 Phil Taylor (2000, 1st Round) v Mick Manning
103.20 Phil Taylor (2001, Quarter Final) v Keith Deller
103.08 Phil Taylor (1998, Semi-Final) v Rod Harrington
102.87 Phil Taylor (2005, 3rd Round) v Alex Roy
102.75 Phil Taylor (2001, Semi-Final) v Dave Askew
102.48 Raymond van Barneveld (2007, 3rd Round) v Rico Vonck
102.39 Phil Taylor (2006, 2nd Round) v Matt Clark
102.00 Phil Taylor (1999, 2nd Round) v John Lowe
101.82 Mick McGowan (2007, 2nd Round) v Phil Taylor (lost match)
101.51 Phil Taylor (2007, Quarter Final) v Darren Webster
101.49 Dennis Priestley (1996, Final) v Phil Taylor (lost match)
101.07 Raymond van Barneveld (2007, Final) v Phil Taylor
100.98 Phil Taylor (2007, Final) v Raymond van Barneveld (lost match)
100.95 Phil Taylor (1996, Group Stages) v Shayne Burgess
100.92 Phil Taylor (1997, Final) v Dennis Priestley
100.77 Phil Taylor (2005, 4th Round) v Dennis Priestley
100.38 Phil Taylor (2003, Quarter Finals) v Dennis Smith
100.23 Phil Taylor (2002, Quarter Finals) v John Part
100.02 Phil Taylor (2004, Semi Finals) v Wayne Mardle
108.80 Phil Taylor (2009, Quarter Final) v Co Stompé
108.39 Gary Anderson (2011, 3rd Round) v Andy Smith
107.37 Phil Taylor (2010, Quarter Final) v Adrian Lewis
106.68 Raymond van Barneveld (2009, Quarter Final) v Jelle Klaasen
106.51 Adrian Lewis (2010, 1st Round) v Aodhagan O’Neill
106.00 Phil Taylor (2010, Semi Final) v Mark Webster
105.37 Simon Whitlock (2010, Quarter Final) v James Wade
104.38 Phil Taylor (2010, Final) v Simon Whitlock
104.26 Phil Taylor (2010, 3rd Round) v Robert Thornton
103.68 Adrian Lewis (2010, 2nd Round) v Wes Newton
103.63 Adrian Lewis (2010, 3rd Round) v Kevin McDine
103.44 Gary Anderson (2011, 2nd Round) v Dennis Priestley
103.44 Phil Taylor (2009, Semi Final) v Mervyn King
103.26 Gary Anderson (2011, 1st Round) v Hashimoto
103.28 Phil Taylor (2010, 2nd Round) v Steve Hine
102.86 Simon Whitlock (2011, 2nd Round) v Denis Ovens
102.75 Gary Anderson (2011, Quarter-Final) v Raymond van Barneveld
102.57 Phil Taylor (2009, 2nd Round) v Michael van Gerwen
102.54 Raymond van Barneveld (2009, 2nd Round) v Wes Newton
102.48 Phil Taylor (2010, 1st Round) v Colin Monk
102.42 Co Stompé (2010, 3rd Round) v Mark Dudbridge
102.09 Phil Taylor (2011, 2nd Round) v Per Laursen
101.74 Phil Taylor (2011, Quarter-Final) v Mark Webster Webster (lost match)
101.63 Phil Taylor (2009, 3rd Round) v Kevin Painter
101.59 Andy Hamilton (2009, 1st Round) v Michael Barnard
101.11 Gary Anderson (2011,Semi-Final) v Terry Jenkins ~
101.05 Adrian Lewis (2011, 3rd Round) v Robert Thornton
101.02 Simon Whitlock (2010, 1st Round) v Colin Osborne
100.80 Raymond van Barneveld (2009, 1st Round) v Mark Stephenson
100.60 Simon Whitlock (2010, 3rd Round) v Terry Jenkins
100.03 Adrian Lewis (2011, Quarter-Final) v Vincent van der Voort