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UK Open

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UK Open
Tournament information
VenueButlin's Minehead
LocationMinehead
CountryEngland
Established2003
Organisation(s)PDC
FormatLegs
Prize fund£450,000 (2020)
Month(s) PlayedJune (2003–2013)
March (2014–)
Current champion(s)
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen

The Ladbrokes UK Open is a ranking major darts tournament held annually at the Butlins Minehead Resort by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in England.[1] Often referred to as the FA Cup of darts, the UK Open replicates the abolition of seedings, elimination play, and fixtures determined via open draw.[2] One-hundred-and-sixty players compete in the multi-board event over eight-stages before the PDC’s Top 32 enter the tournament in the fourth round. The tournament has a prize fund of £450,000; the victor’s prize is £100,000.[3]

History

From 2003 to 2013, the UK Open took place in June each year at the Reebok Stadium, in Bolton. In 2014, it moved to Butlin's Minehead taking place in early March. Phil Taylor beat Shayne Burgess in the inaugural final. Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld won the tournament in 2006, the first ever ranking tournament with the PDC in which he has played. He knocked out 13-times World Champion Phil Taylor 11–10 en route to the final where he beat Barrie Bates 13–7. He also successfully defended the title in 2007, again beating Taylor en route.

Taylor has achieved the perfect nine-dart finish four times (2004, 2005, 2007 & 2008). Mervyn King (2010), Gary Anderson (2012), Wes Newton (2013), Michael van Gerwen (2016 & 2020) and Jonny Clayton (2020) have also achieved a nine-dart leg (although Newton and Clayton's finishes were not televised live). The tournament had a different runner-up for the first 13 years.

Because of extreme weather conditions and fears for the safety of visiting fans the unprecedented decision was taken by the host venue Butlins to play the entire 2018 UK Open behind closed doors leaving the public only being able to watch the event though ITV4’s live coverage and the PDC live web feed.[4]

Format

Qualifying events for amateur players are organised by Rileys and held in various locations across the UK. 16 players qualify through these events.

The format is as follows (as of 2020):

  • First round: The 16 Rileys qualifiers, 8 Challenge Tour qualifiers, 8 Development Tour qualifiers and Tour Card holders ranked 97–128 in the PDC Order of Merit.
  • Second round: Players ranked 65–96 in the PDC Order of Merit join the 32 winners of the first round.
  • Third round: Players ranked 33–64 join the 32 winners of the second round.
  • Fourth round to final: Players ranked 1–32 in the PDC Order of Merit join the 32 winners of the third round.

The draws for the first three rounds are made in full after all qualifying players are known, while the draws for the fourth round onward are made separately on stage as soon as each preceding round has concluded.

UK Open Finals

Year[a] Champion (average in final) Score Runner-up (average in final) Prize money Sponsor Venue
Total Champion Runner-up
2003 England Phil Taylor (98.03) 18–8 England Shayne Burgess (91.36) £124,000 £30,000 £15,000 Sky Bet Reebok Stadium, Bolton
2004 Netherlands Roland Scholten (89.49) 11–6 Canada John Part (85.98) Budweiser
2005 England Phil Taylor (96.80) 13–7 England Mark Walsh (84.52)
2006 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld (91.51) 13–7 Wales Barrie Bates (82.98)
2007 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld (94.99) 16–8 Netherlands Vincent van der Voort (88.76) £150,000 Blue Square
2008 England James Wade (94.65) 11–7 United States Gary Mawson (87.33) £178,000 £35,000
2009 England Phil Taylor (100.81) 11–6 England Colin Osborne (93.24) £200,000 £40,000 £20,000
2010 England Phil Taylor (97.71) 11–5 Scotland Gary Anderson (92.41) Rileys Darts Zones
2011 England James Wade (96.25) 11–8 England Wes Newton (88.51) Speedy Hire
2012 Scotland Robert Thornton (95.44) 11–5 England Phil Taylor (98.58)
2013 England Phil Taylor (107.04) 11–4 England Andy Hamilton (97.95)
2014 England Adrian Lewis (109.13) 11–1 England Terry Jenkins (93.15) £250,000 £50,000 £25,000 Coral Butlin's Resort, Minehead
2015 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (98.43) 11–5 Scotland Peter Wright (99.33) £300,000 £60,000 £30,000
2016 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (106.68) 11–4 Scotland Peter Wright (98.33)
2017 Scotland Peter Wright (100.55) 11–6 Wales Gerwyn Price (97.78) £350,000 £70,000 £35,000
2018 Scotland Gary Anderson (95.71) 11–7 Australia Corey Cadby (99.78)
2019 England Nathan Aspinall (88.72) 11–5 England Rob Cross (84.79) £450,000 £100,000 £40,000 Ladbrokes
2020 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (101.42) 11–9 Wales Gerwyn Price (99.16)

Records and statistics

As of 8 March 2020.

Total finalist appearances

Rank Player Nationality Won Runner-up Finals Appearances
1 Phil Taylor England England 5 1 6 14
2 Michael van Gerwen Netherlands Netherlands 3 0 3 13
3 Raymond van Barneveld Netherlands Netherlands 2 0 2 13
James Wade England England 2 0 2 18
5 Peter Wright Scotland Scotland 1 2 3 13
6 Gary Anderson Scotland Scotland 1 1 2 12
7 Nathan Aspinall England England 1 0 1 5
Adrian Lewis England England 1 0 1 17
Roland Scholten Netherlands Netherlands 1 0 1 11
Robert Thornton Scotland Scotland 1 0 1 13
11 Gerwyn Price Wales Wales 0 2 2 7
12 Barrie Bates Wales Wales 0 1 1 12
Shayne Burgess England England 0 1 1 4
Corey Cadby Australia Australia 0 1 1 1
Rob Cross England England 0 1 1 5
Andy Hamilton England England 0 1 1 15
Terry Jenkins England England 0 1 1 16
Gary Mawson United States United States 0 1 1 3
Wes Newton England England 0 1 1 14
Colin Osborne England England 0 1 1 9
John Part Canada Canada 0 1 1 14
Vincent van der Voort Netherlands Netherlands 0 1 1 14
Mark Walsh England England 0 1 1 13
  • Active players are shown in bold
  • Only players who reached the final are included
  • In the event of identical records, players are sorted in alphabetical order by family name

Champions by country

Country Players Total First title Last title
 England 4 9 2003 2019
 Netherlands 3 6 2004 2020
 Scotland 3 3 2012 2018

Nine-dart finishes

Ten nine-darters have been thrown at the UK Open. The first one was in 2004, and nine of them have been televised. The one that wasn't was thrown by Wes Newton in 2013 against Adrian Lewis.

Player Year (+ Round) Method Opponent Result
England Phil Taylor 2004, 4th Round 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 England Matt Chapman 8–2
England Phil Taylor 2005, Semi-Final 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Netherlands Roland Scholten 11–6
England Phil Taylor 2007, 5th Round 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 England Wes Newton 11–5
England Phil Taylor 2008, 4th Round 3 x T20; 2 x T20, T19; 2 x T20, D12 Scotland Jamie Harvey 9–1
England Mervyn King 2010, 5th Round 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Scotland Gary Anderson 8–9
Scotland Gary Anderson 2012, 3rd Round 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 England Davey Dodds 9–3
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 2016, 4th Round 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 England Rob Cross 9–5
Wales Jonny Clayton 2020, 6th Round 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 England Chris Dobey 10–8
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 2020, Semi-Finals 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Northern Ireland Daryl Gurney 11–3

High averages

Ten highest UK Open one-match averages
Average Player Year (+ Round) Opponent Result
118.66 England Phil Taylor 2010, Last 32 England Kevin Painter 9–0
115.62 England Phil Taylor 2009, Quarter-Final England Mark Lawrence 10–0
115.51 England Phil Taylor 2009, Last 32 England Ken Mather 9–3
114.91 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 2015, Last 16 Belgium Kim Huybrechts 9–2
114.54 England Phil Taylor 2008, Last 16 England Wes Newton 9–3
113.05 England Phil Taylor 2010, Semi-Final England Denis Ovens 10–5
111.67 England Phil Taylor 2015, Last 16 Netherlands Vincent van der Voort 9–3
110.88 Scotland Peter Wright 2017, Quarter-Final Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 10–8
110.81 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 2020, Quarter-Final England Rob Cross 10–4
110.72 England Phil Taylor 2012, Last 16 England Ronnie Baxter 9–4
Five highest tournament averages
Average Player Year
109.17 England Phil Taylor 2015
107.38[5] England Phil Taylor 2009
106.81 England Phil Taylor 2013
106.43 England Phil Taylor 2010
105.57 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 2015

Media coverage

From 2003 until 2013, coverage for the UK Open was shown on Sky Sports in June, but from 2014, the tournament was moved to March and shown on ITV4.

Sponsors

The inaugural event in 2003 was sponsored by Sky Bet. In 2004 Budweiser became the main sponsor. After Budweiser's three-year sponsorship ended in 2006, bookmakers Blue Square took over as title sponsor in 2007 until 2009. The 2010 event was sponsored by Rileys Darts Zones.[6] From 2011 to 2013 it has been sponsored by Speedy Hire. In 2014 Coral took over sponsorship, it lasted until 2018, when its sister company, Ladbrokes took over for the 2019 tournament.

Sponsor Years
Sky Bet 2003
Budweiser 2004–2006 [7]
Blue Square 2007–2009 [8]
Rileys Darts Zones 2010
Speedy Hire 2011–2013
Coral 2014–2018
Ladbrokes 2019–present

References

  1. ^ "Ladbrokes UK Open". PDC. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
  2. ^ "UK Open Darts 2020 schedule and draw confirmed". Metro. 2020-02-26. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
  3. ^ "Draw and Schedule for 2020 UK Open confirmed". Darts News. 2020-02-24. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
  4. ^ "PDC Coral UK Open at Butlin's in Minehead to be played with no fans due to 'unprecedented extreme weather'". Somerset Live. 2 March 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  5. ^ "2009 UK Open Stats". Dartsdatabase. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  6. ^ http://www.pdc.tv/page/UKOpen/0,,10180,00.html
  7. ^ Bud on the oche
  8. ^ Blue Square teams up with UK Open

Notes

  • a Each year is linked to an article about that particular event's draw.
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