1994 WDC World Darts Championship

Skol World Darts Championship
Tournament information
Venue	Circus Tavern
Location	Purfleet, Essex
Country	England
Organisation(s)	PDC (WDC)
Format	Sets Final – best of 11
Prize fund	£64,000
Winner's share	£16,000
Champion(s)
Dennis Priestley

The 1994 Skol World Darts Championships was held following 18 months of controversy within the sport of darts. After the 1993 Embassy World Championships, several players decided it was time to part company with the British Darts Organisation (who had always organised the World Championship) and form their own organisation. The new organisation was known as the World Darts Council (WDC). The WDC would later become the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).

The WDC decided to introduce their own separate World Championship, with the inaugural tournament being staged before the BDO version. The 1994 Championship actually started on Boxing Day 1993. This started a tradition for the WDC/PDC World Championship to actually kick off before the new calendar year begins. The tournament was staged at the Circus Tavern, Purfleet, Essex.

The 16 Defectors

Originally 16 players "defected" from the BDO to form the WDC/PDC - Phil Taylor, Dennis Priestley, Rod Harrington, Alan Warriner, Peter Evison, Richie Gardner, Jocky Wilson, Eric Bristow, Keith Deller, John Lowe, Bob Anderson, Cliff Lazarenko, Kevin Spiolek, Jamie Harvey, Mike Gregory and Chris Johns.

However Johns and Gregory returned to the BDO without ever competing at the PDC World Championship. They were replaced with Graeme Stoddart and Kevin Burrows and the field was brought up to 24 by adding seven players from the United States and Tom Kirby of Ireland.

The Tournament & Format

Dennis Priestley became the first WDC World Champion, winning his second championship in the process, defeating Phil Taylor by 6 sets to 1 in the final.

There were 24 players involved and the tournament featured an unusual round-robin format. The players were put into groups of three where the order of play was thus:

• Player A v Player B
• Loser of Match 1 v Player C
• Winner of Match 1 v Player C

This was done so that there would usually always be something to play for in the last group game.

The group winner would progress to the quarter-finals (best of seven sets) and the tournament then became a straight knock-out event. The semi-finals were the best of 9 sets and the final was best of 11 sets.

Phil Taylor defeated four opponents with a set record of 15-3 (Watkins 3-0, Bravedart Jamie Harvey 3-1, Bob Anderson 4-2, and Steve Brown 5-0) to reach the final. Dennis Priestley had seen off Peter Evison in the semi-final and became a World Champion for a second time with a bang, winning the final 6-1 to add to his 6-0 whitewash victory over Eric Bristow in the BDO in 1991.

Prize money

The prize money for the tournament was £64,000 - significantly less than the 1994 BDO World Championship which featured a £136,100 prize fund.

Champion £16,000 (BDO £32,000)

Runner-up £8,000 (BDO £16,000)

Third place £5,000 (BDO £7,700)

Fourth place £3,000 (BDO £7,700)

Quarter-finals £1,500 (BDO £3,800)

Group stage £1,250 (BDO last 16 £2,800 last 32 £1,900)

Tournament review

Group stage

The majority of the major players came through the group stage without trouble, though Phil Taylor would have been hopeful of a 3-0 win against Bravedart Jamie Harvey coming through by 3 sets to 1. 1988 World Champion Bob Anderson would join him after a series of 3-0 wins against Gerald Verrirer and Dave Kelly. Steve Brown though upset the odds in Group 3 in taking out 1983 champion Keith Deller, whose best days had begun to go. Alan Warriner would be through to meet him after a couple of 3-1 wins against Richie Gardner and Cliff Lazarenko. Peter Evison, former no. 2 seed with the BDO also would go through to the quarter-finals after 2 wins. Rod Harrington also went through from Group 6, though not without difficulty. After a 3-1 win over five time World Champion Eric Bristow in match 1, he narrowly defeated Sean Downs by 3 sets to 2 to go through to the last 8.

Group 7 would see John Lowe bow out, in a tight group in which Tom Kirby from Ireland booked a quarter-final slot despite suffering defeat in his opening match. He would be up against Dennis Priestley after the Yorkshireman saw off Jockey Wilson and Graeme Stoddart to book a quarter-final slot

Quarter-Finals In the battle of two former world champions, Phil Taylor moved onto the Semi-Finals with a 4-2 win over fellow Englishman Bob Anderson, who would still be searching for his second world title. Steve Brown upset the odds to defeat 1993 World Finalist Alan Warriner 6-3 to move on into the semi-finals and a meeting with Taylor. Rod Harrington, who had struggled through his second match against Sean Downs would bow out at this stage, Peter Evison winning 4-1.

Dennis Priestley ensured that there would be at least one English Finalist, in setting up a meeting with Evison after ending the run in the event of Tom Kirby by 4 sets to 2.

Semi-Finals American interest ended at this stage, after Steve Brown's run in eliminating Deller and Warriner, he struggled against Taylor, and the Englishman would go through, a very convincing 5-0 winner to the final. He would meet Priestley - who beat him en route to his 1991 World Title after the Yorkshireman won 5-3 against Peter Evison

Final Given that their previous World Championship meeting had been a thriller 4-3, it came a big surprise that Priestley would win comfortably, his second world title came with a 6-1 win, adding to the 6-0 win over Eric Bristow in 1991.

Results

1st Round - Group Stages

Group 1 Phil Taylor 92.58 3 - 1 Jamie Harvey 89.76 Jamie Harvey 91.35 2 - 3 Jim Watkins 87.90 Phil Taylor 80.49 3 - 0 Jim Watkins 78.00

Pos Player P W L SF SA +/- Pts 1 Phil Taylor 2 2 0 6 1 +5 4 2 Jim Watkins 2 1 1 3 5 -2 2 3 Jamie Harvey 2 0 2 3 6 -3 0

Group 2 Bob Anderson 86.97 3 - 0 Gerald Verrier 82.89 Gerald Verrier 74.43 3 - 0 Dave Kelly 75.39 Bob Anderson 83.43 3 - 0 Dave Kelly 72.48

Pos Player P W L SF SA +/- Pts 1 Bob Anderson 2 2 0 6 0 +6 4 2 Gerald Verrier 2 1 1 3 3 0 2 3 Dave Kelly 2 0 2 0 6 -6 0

Group 3 Keith Deller 88.53 1 - 3 Kevin Spiolek 85.50 Keith Deller 84.57 1 - 3 Steve Brown 85.92 Kevin Spiolek 84.06 0 - 3 Steve Brown 92.61

Pos Player P W L SF SA +/- Pts 1 Steve Brown 2 2 0 6 1 +5 4 2 Kevin Spiolek 2 1 1 3 4 -1 2 3 Keith Deller 2 0 2 2 6 -4 0

Group 4 Alan Warriner 87.93 3 - 1 Ritchie Gardner 81.00 Ritchie Gardner 88.25 3 - 1 Cliff Lazarenko 77.64 Alan Warriner 85.77 3 -1 Cliff Lazarenko 85.56

Pos Player P W L SF SA +/- Pts 1 Alan Warriner 2 2 0 6 2 +4 4 2 Ritchie Gardner 2 1 1 4 4 0 2 3 Cliff Lazarenko 2 0 2 2 6 -4 0

Group 5 Peter Evison 93.39 3 - 0 Jerry Umberger 81.06 Jerry Umberger 81.06 3 - 0 Kevin Burrows 77.04 Peter Evison 97.56 3 - 0 Kevin Burrows 87.57

Pos Player P W L SF SA +/- Pts 1 Peter Evison 2 2 0 6 0 +6 4 2 Jerry Umberger 2 1 1 3 3 0 2 3 Kevin Burrows 2 0 2 0 6 -6 0

Group 6 Eric Bristow 78.63 1 - 3 Rod Harrington 89.22 Eric Bristow 82.20 3 - 2 Sean Downs 79.20 Rod Harrington 90.60 3 - 2 Sean Downs 83.88

Pos Player P W L SF SA +/- Pts 1 Rod Harrington 2 2 0 6 3 +3 4 2 Eric Bristow 2 1 1 4 5 -1 2 3 Sean Downs 2 0 2 4 6 -2 0

Group 7 John Lowe 89.94 3 - 2 Tom Kirby 87.66 Tom Kirby 88.44 3 - 1 Larry Butler 89.04 John Lowe 82.86 2 - 3 Larry Butler 81.21

Pos Player P W L SF SA +/- Pts 1 Tom Kirby 2 1 1 5 4 +1 2 2 John Lowe 2 1 1 5 5 0 2 3 Larry Butler 2 0 2 4 5 -1 2

Group 8 Dennis Priestley 95.22 3 - 2 Jocky Wilson 94.38 Jocky Wilson 77.22 1 - 3 Graeme Stoddart 78.21 Dennis Priestley 86.25 3 - 0 Graeme Stoddart 85.92

Pos Player P W L SF SA +/- Pts 1 Dennis Priestley 2 2 0 6 2 +4 4 2 Graeme Stoddart 2 1 1 3 4 -1 2 3 Jocky Wilson 2 0 2 3 6 -3 0

Knockout Stages

Quarter Finals

Semi Finals

Final 2 January 1994

Group 1 Winner

Phil Taylor 90.21

4

Group 2 Winner

Bob Anderson 90.72

2

Phil Taylor 91.20

5

Steve Brown 91.20

0

Group 3 Winner

Steve Brown 90.21

4

Group 4 winner

Alan Warriner 88.29

3

Phil Taylor 85.62

1

Dennis Priestley 94.38

6

Group 5 Winner

Peter Evison 90.15

4

Group 6 Winner

Rod Harrington 89.37

1

Peter Evison 82.41

3

Dennis Priestley 94.38

5

Group 7 Winner

Tom Kirby 84.03

2

Group 8 Winner

Dennis Priestley 90.93

4

Third-place play-off: Steve Brown 89.28 5 - 1 Peter Evison 83.13