BDO World Darts Championship

The BDO World Darts Championship was a professional darts tournament organised by the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and held annually from 1978 to 2020.

The championship was first held at the Heart of the Midlands Nightclub in the English city of Nottingham. The following year it moved to the Jollees Cabaret Club, Stoke, where it stayed until 1985. From 1986 to 2019, it was held at the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey. In 2020, the tournament was held at Indigo, part of the O2 entertainment district in London.

It was the only World Darts Championship until the 1993 split in darts, when 16 players, among them seven former champions, left the BDO and set up a rival darts circuit under the auspices of the World Darts Council (later the Professional Darts Corporation). The WDC/PDC staged its own annual World Championship from 1994 onwards.

From its inception, the tournament was sponsored by Embassy cigarettes, a branch of Imperial Tobacco, and was thus often colloquially known as the Embassy. After the ban on tobacco advertising in the UK, the event was sponsored by its venue, the Lakeside Country Club, from 2004 onwards. The final edition, in 2020, was unable to find a sponsor.

After the collapse of the British Darts Organisation in September 2020, the World Darts Federation announced plans to launch the WDF World Darts Championship, which took place for the first time in 2022.

History

The World Darts Championship was the brainchild of Mike Watterson, a sports promoter who had created the UK Snooker Championship and moved the World Snooker Championship to the Crucible Theatre in 1977. Watterson came up with the idea whilst sitting in a barber's chair waiting for a haircut. John Lowe, a friend of Watterson, convinced him that such an event would be easy to stage and suggested contacting Olly Croft, head of the British Darts Organisation, to run it.

The inaugural event was staged at the Heart of the Midlands club in Nottingham. Embassy cigarettes, which also sponsored the World Snooker Championship, put up the £10,500 prize fund and it would be broadcast on BBC2. Ten top players (Eric Bristow, John Lowe, Leighton Rees, Rab Smith, Alan Evans, Stefan Lord, Tim Brown, Bobby Semple, Nicky Virachkul and Barry Atkinson) were invited, with the remaining places going to qualifiers. The first tournament used the legs format for its matches, but from 1979 onwards Watterson introduced the sets and legs format, which has been used in darts ever since. It was won by Rees, who beat Lowe in the final.

In 1983, Keith Deller, a 23-year-old qualifier from Ipswich, beat the world's top three players back-to-back: John Lowe (world no. 3) in the quarter-final; reigning champion and World No. 2 Jocky Wilson in the semi-final, before an epic deciding set win against World no. 1 Eric Bristow in the final, to produce one of the greatest upsets in the sport's history.

In 1990 Singaporean (then-representing the USA) player Paul Lim hit the tournament's only 9-dart finish in the second round against Irishman Jack McKenna to win a bonus of £52,000 which was more than the eventual champion Phil Taylor received.

The finals of 1992, 1998 and 1999 all went into a deciding set play off, having reached 5 sets all and 2 legs all. In 1992, Phil Taylor defeated Mike Gregory in a sudden death leg, having reached 5 legs apiece. In 1998 Raymond van Barneveld beat Richie Burnett 4–2 in legs in the deciding set. Van Barneveld then repeated the same final set scoreline the following year against Ronnie Baxter.

In the final in 2007 Martin Adams was 6 sets up and, after the comfort break, Phill Nixon responded by winning the next 6 consecutive sets. Adams held on to take victory in the 13th and deciding set, to win the title that had eluded him for 14 years.

In 2019, Glen Durrant became the second player to win three consecutive BDO Men's World Championships after Eric Bristow between 1984 and 1986, while Mikuru Suzuki became the first Asian world darts champion in any form.

In 2020 the tournament was staged at the Indigo at The O2 in London. It was the first BDO World Darts Championship not held at the Lakeside Country Club since 1985. Wayne Warren became the oldest player ever to win a world title. It was also the last World Darts Championship organised by the BDO before the collapse of the company. The World Darts Federation announced plans to launch the WDF World Championship.

Final results and statistics

Finalists

Nine-dart finish

Averages

Since the breakaway of the PDC players, there has been much debate about the relative merits of the players within each organisation. The debate often focuses on the three-dart averages of players in matches.

Since the BDO Championship started in 1978, there have been 21 occasions where a player has achieved a three-dart average in excess of 100 during a match. Keith Deller was the first player to achieve an average of 100, in the quarter-final of 1985 against John Lowe, although he lost the match. It was not until Phil Taylor's semi-final of 1990 that another player managed a 100 average. Raymond van Barneveld has achieved the feat six times.

Women's Championship

The women's World Championship started at the Lakeside in 2001 and Trina Gulliver has won ten championships. Her seventh title in 2007 took her overall record at the Lakeside to 20 match wins and having only dropped four sets in the history of the championship – one each in the finals of 2001, 2002 and 2007 and one in the quarter final of 2003. She managed a long run of 13 consecutive matches without dropping a single set, which started the semi-final of 2003 and ended in the final of 2007.

In 2008, Anastasia Dobromyslova won the championship, becoming the first player other than Trina Gulliver to take the title. Following her appearance at the Grand Slam of Darts in November 2008, Anastasia Dobromyslova joined the Professional Darts Corporation, hence leaving the BDO and did not defend her title. 2009 saw five-time runner-up Francis Hoenselaar complete the Masters/World Championship double by beating Gulliver 2–1 in the final. 2012 was the first final without Gulliver, who lost in the semi-final to the eventual champion Dobromyslova.

The finals:

Finalists

Averages

Youth Championship

Finalists

Records

Since the split in darts two versions of the world championship have existed since 1994, this record section relates specifically to achievements in the BDO version.

Most titles: Eric Bristow 5. Raymond van Barneveld has won four titles

Most finals: Eric Bristow 10. John Lowe appeared in eight finals and Raymond van Barneveld reached the final six times

Most appearances: Martin Adams 26. John Lowe and Eric Bristow appeared in the first 16 tournaments, but the split in darts prevented them from increasing that total. Adams' appearance at the 2010 tournament surpassed their record.

Youngest champion: Jelle Klaasen 21 years 90 days (2006)

Youngest competitor: Leighton Bennett 14 years 4 days (2020)

Oldest champion: Wayne Warren 57 years 219 days (2020)

Television coverage

BBC Sport

The tournament was broadcast in the UK by BBC Sport on television for nearly 40 years, from its inception in 1978 until the decision to drop the coverage after the 2016 tournament. The BBC's coverage was led by David Vine (1978), Peter Purves (1979–1983), Tony Gubba (1984–1990), David Icke (1989–1990), Eamonn Holmes (1991–1992), Dougie Donnelly (1993–1998), John Inverdale (2000) and Ray Stubbs (1999 and 2001–2009). Twice world finalist Bobby George was a pundit on the BBC's coverage from 1998. Colin Murray succeeded Stubbs as presenter from 2010–2016. Murray was assisted by Rob Walker.

Tony Green was the longest-serving member of the BBC commentary team, covering the event from the first championship in 1978 until the end of the BBC's coverage in 2016. As the BBC shared coverage and commentators from 2012 until 2016, Green was also heard on ESPN and BT Sport in later years. He only missed the event once during his 38-year career due to illness in 2011 and he was replaced by BBC Radio 5 Live's Vassos Alexander. Alexander then stayed in the commentary box every year until 2016.

The rest of the commentary team changed over the years with David Vine (1978), Sid Waddell (1978–1994), Tony Green (1978-2016), 1994 BDO world champion John Part (1995–2007) and David Croft who covered the tournament for 10 years on BBC TV and radio until 2012. He was replaced by Jim Proudfoot of talkSPORT in 2013, who went on to cover the tournament in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018 with different broadcasters. John Rawling began commentating in 2014 with BBC/BT and was still part of the commentary team as coverage switched to Eurosport/Quest in 2019. The rest of the commentary team has included BDO players Bobby George, Martin Adams, Trina Gulliver, Tony O'Shea and Scott Mitchell.

For several years between 1989 and 2001, the Championship was often the only tournament shown on terrestrial television in the UK.

From 2005, viewers were able to see every dart live at the World Championship, when the BBC introduced interactive coverage on its BBC Red Button service. From 2012, they began to reduce their coverage as they surrendered their exclusive coverage for the first time in the UK. ESPN took over the live broadcasting of the evening sessions, although the BBC held on to exclusively live coverage of the final.

The BBC regained exclusive coverage for the 2014 tournament, but resumed a shared broadcasting agreement to cover the 2015 and 2016 events with BT who covered every evening session in the tournament. John Rawling, Vassos Alexander, Tony Green and George Riley provided the commentary for both broadcasters in 2015 and 2016 - Jim Proudfoot was an additional commentator in 2015.

The BBC contract expired after the 2016 final and they opted to drop the tournament, instead covering a new PDC tournament, the Champions League of Darts in September 2016. The free-to-air rights from 2017 were taken up by Channel 4.

ESPN

After being broadcast exclusively on the BBC in the UK for 34 years, ESPN began sharing coverage of the tournament in 2012. Ray Stubbs was confirmed as their host. ESPN host Nat Coombs was also part of the presentation team. Both broadcasters used the same commentary team – Tony Green, David Croft and Vassos Alexander for 2012 and Jim Proudfoot replacing Croft for 2013. ESPN broadcast the evening sessions from the opening day until the quarter finals, as well as the second semi-final live. ESPN showed recorded highlights of the final. Following the launch of BT Sport, which acquired all of ESPN's sporting rights, coverage was dropped from ESPN and the entire 2014 championship was shown exclusively live by the BBC.

BT Sport

BT Sport covered the event between 2015 and 2018, first of all sharing broadcasting arrangements with the BBC in 2015 and 2016, then with Channel 4 in 2017 and 2018. They had exclusive live coverage of all the evening sessions, plus the second semi-final across their four years broadcasting the event. BT broadcast the final live in all four years of the coverage, although it was shared live coverage with their broadcast partners (BBC 2015-2016 and Channel 4 2017-2018)

BT Sport welcomed back Ray Stubbs as main host in 2015 and 2016, who returned to Lakeside coverage having fronted the BBC's coverage in 1999 and from 2001–2009 and also for ESPN (2012-2013). Stubbs hosted alongside 2-time champion Ted Hankey who returned to the BDO in 2014 but just missed out on a qualifying spot for Lakeside 2015. Roving reporters were Helen Skelton in 2015 and Reshmin Chowdhury in 2016. Commentators were shared by broadcasters during BT's four year coverage. John Rawling and Vassos Alexander broadcast commentary throughout BT's four-year coverage, Jim Proudfoot covered the event in 2015, 2017 and 2018. George Riley and Tony Green covered the event in 2015 and 2016, with Green retiring after the 2016 event, after the BBC ended their coverage.

Ray Stubbs left BT Sport for Talksport 2 during 2016, and was replaced by Matt Smith for the 2017 and 2018 events, with Chris Mason acting as their analyst.

Channel 4

Channel 4 signed a two-year deal to cover the 2017 and 2018 championships, sharing the event with BT Sport. Their coverage was presented by Rob Walker, alongside PDC professional Paul Nicholson and BDO Ladies' player Deta Hedman. Bobby George presented features. Commentary was provided again from Jim Proudfoot, John Rawling & Vassos Alexander.

Eurosport and Quest

Prior to the 2019 championship, the BDO secured a new 3-year deal with Eurosport with coverage being shown on both the broadcasters main subscription channel and free-to-air on Quest. As with the previous years the afternoon sessions were shown free to air with Quest simulcasting Eurosport coverage with highlights of the evening sessions also being shown on Quest. Eurosport covered every session with both broadcasters showing the final live. The coverage was presented by Nat Coombs with Georgie Bingham also reporting on the event. Punditry and commentary for the tournament were provided by John Rawling, Chris Mason, Paul Nicholson, Martin Adams and Tony O'Shea. The Eurosport contract finished 1 year early due to the BDO going into liquidation in September 2020.

International coverage

Dutch television station SBS6 broadcast the event since 1998, as Dutch players have become more prominent in the world game. SBS6's contract to cover the event ran until 2008.

Viewing figures

UK viewing figures for World Championship final data provided by the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board UK.

..

2015 2,000,000

2014 3,500,000

2013 2,100,000

2012 2,370,000

2011 2,330,000

2010 3,100,000

2009 1,830,000

2008 3,010,000

2007 3,300,000

2006 3,620,000

2005 2,550,000

2004 3,410,000

2003 2,810,000

2002 2,460,000

2001 3,680,000

2000 3,700,000

1999 4,060,000

References

External links

• Official BDO website (Closed)
• Lakeside World Darts Archived 12 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine Official website