World Grand Prix (darts)
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2011) |
| World Grand Prix | |
|---|---|
| Tournament information | |
| Venue | Citywest |
| Location | Dublin |
| Country | Republic of Ireland |
| Established | 1998 |
| Organisation(s) | PDC |
| Format | Sets "double in, double out" |
| Prize fund | £450,000 (2019) |
| Month(s) Played | October |
| Current champion(s) | |
 Gerwyn Price | |
The BoyleSports World Grand Prix is a PDC darts tournament held in Dublin each October. Its original venue was the Casino Rooms in Rochester, Kent in 1998 and 1999, and then for one year only in 2000 at the Crosbie Cedars Hotel in Rosslare, County Wexford. In 2001, the tournament moved further north to the Citywest in Dublin. In 2009, the tournament moved from the Reception Hall at the main Citywest Hotel to the newly completed bigger venue on site, the Citywest Hotel Convention Centre. In 2012, the tournament moved back to the Reception Hall for that year, before returning to the Convention Centre in 2013. For 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was held at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry. When the World Grand Prix was founded in 1998, it replaced the earlier World Pairs tournament which ran from 1995 to 1997.
The World Grand Prix was sponsored by bookmakers Paddy Power from 2001 to 2003, before Sky Bet took over in 2004. The subsidiary Sky Poker was the tournament's sponsor in 2008. In 2010, online gambling company Bodog became the event's title sponsor, while PartyPoker.com took over as sponsor in 2011. In 2016, Unibet took over as sponsor, with BoyleSports sponsoring the event in 2019.
Although he has dominated the event with eleven title wins, Phil Taylor has been knocked out of the World Grand Prix five times in the first round. In 2001, he lost 2–1 to qualifier Kevin Painter, in 2004 by 2–0 in sets to Andy Callaby, in 2007 by 2–0 in sets to Adrian Gray, in 2015 by 2–0 in sets to Vincent van der Voort and in 2016 by 2–1 to Steve West.
The current champion is Gerwyn Price of Wales, who defeated Dirk van Duijvenbode of the Netherlands 5–2 in the final on 12 October 2020 for his first World Grand Prix title.
Tournament format
The tournament is unusual in that it is the only televised event in which players must commence and finish each leg on a double (including the bullseye).
There have been several different formats for the tournament. The first event in 1998 event was a straight knock-out tournament played in a setplay format with each set being contested over the best of three legs. The following year this changed to the best of five legs per set. Furthermore, a group stage was introduced in 1999, with there only being four seeded players for the event, all of whom reached the semi-finals. In 2000, the tournament reverted to being a straight knock-out and has remained so ever since.
The double-start format also makes landing a perfect nine-dart finish even more difficult, as it limits the number of combinations and guarantees that a player must finish on the bullseye (unless they start with one). The first nine-darter in Grand Prix history was completed by Brendan Dolan in the 2011 semi-final. In 2014, James Wade (who was coincidentally on the receiving end of Dolan's nine dart finish) and Robert Thornton both hit perfect legs in the same match, the first time this happened in any televised event. On all three occasions, the leg started with a score of 160 (starting on double 20), followed by 180, followed by finishing 161 with treble 20, treble 17, and bullseye.
World Grand Prix Finals
| Year | Champion (average in final) | Score | Runner-up (average in final) | Prize money | Sponsor | Venue | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Champion | Runner-up | ||||||
| 1998 |  Phil Taylor (94.61)
|
13–8 | Rod Harrington (86.64)
|
£38,000 | £9,000 | £5,000 | PDC | Casino Rooms, Rochester, Kent |
| 1999 | Phil Taylor (92.59)
|
6–1 | Shayne Burgess (81.26)
| |||||
| 2000 | Phil Taylor (91.32)
|
6–1 | Shayne Burgess (81.48)
|
£70,000 | £15,000 | £7,500 | Crosbie Cedars Hotel, Rosslare | |
| 2001 | Alan Warriner (83.52)
|
8–2 |  Roland Scholten (81.84)
|
£78,000 | Paddy Power | Citywest Hotel, Dublin Reception Hall (2001–2008, 2012) Citywest Hotel, Dublin Convention Centre (2009–2011, 2013–2019) | ||
| 2002 | Phil Taylor (100.17)
|
7–3 |  John Part (88.62)
|
£70,000 | £14,000 | £7,000 | ||
| 2003 | Phil Taylor (94.80)
|
7–2 | John Part (83.25)
|
£76,000 | £15,000 | £7,500 | ||
| 2004 | Colin Lloyd (85.29)
|
7–3 | Alan Warriner (77.91)
|
£100,000 | £20,000 | £10,000 | Sky Bet | |
| 2005 | Phil Taylor (90.74)
|
7–1 | Colin Lloyd (82.05)
| |||||
| 2006 | Phil Taylor (88.24)
|
7–4 | Terry Jenkins (82.51)
|
£130,000 | £25,000 | £12,500 | ||
| 2007 | James Wade (86.03)
|
6–3 | Terry Jenkins (84.58)
|
£200,000 | £50,000 | £20,000 | ||
| 2008 | Phil Taylor (97.81)
|
6–2 | Raymond van Barneveld (90.42)
|
£250,000 | £25,000 | Sky Poker | ||
| 2009 | Phil Taylor (97.07)
|
6–3 | Raymond van Barneveld (86.62)
|
£350,000 | £100,000 | £40,000 | Sky Bet | |
| 2010 | James Wade (88.92)
|
6–3 | Adrian Lewis (89.33)
|
Bodog | ||||
| 2011 | Phil Taylor (90.29)
|
6–3 |  Brendan Dolan (84.68)
|
PartyPoker.com | ||||
| 2012 | Michael van Gerwen (87.53)
|
6–4 | Mervyn King (81.96)
| |||||
| 2013 | Phil Taylor (97.67)
|
6–0 | Dave Chisnall (81.29)
| |||||
| 2014 | Michael van Gerwen (90.81)
|
5–3 | James Wade (89.26)
|
£400,000 | £45,000 | |||
| 2015 |  Robert Thornton (90.79)
|
5–4 | Michael van Gerwen (96.79)
| |||||
| 2016 | Michael van Gerwen (100.29)
|
5–2 | Gary Anderson (92.73)
|
Unibet | ||||
| 2017 | Daryl Gurney (88.50)
|
5–4 |  Simon Whitlock (83.53)
| |||||
| 2018 | Michael van Gerwen (88.85)
|
5–2 | Peter Wright (91.61)
| |||||
| 2019 | Michael van Gerwen (94.74)
|
5–2 | Dave Chisnall (93.32)
|
£450,000 | £110,000 | £50,000 | BoyleSports | |
| 2020 | Gerwyn Price (88.19)
|
5–2 | Dirk van Duijvenbode (87.07)
|
Ricoh Arena, Coventry[1] | ||||
Records and statistics
- As of 12 October 2020.
Total finalist appearances
| Rank | Player | Nationality | Won | Runner-up | Finals | Appearances |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phil Taylor | England |
11 | 0 | 11 | 19 |
| 2 | Michael van Gerwen | Netherlands |
5 | 1 | 6 | 10 |
| 3 | James Wade | England |
2 | 1 | 3 | 16 |
| 4 | Colin Lloyd | England |
1 | 1 | 2 | 14 |
| Alan Warriner | England |
1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | |
| 6 | Robert Thornton | Scotland |
1 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| Daryl Gurney | Northern Ireland |
1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | |
| Gerwyn Price | Wales |
1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | |
| 9 | John Part | Canada |
0 | 2 | 2 | 14 |
| Raymond van Barneveld | Netherlands |
0 | 2 | 2 | 13 | |
| Terry Jenkins | England |
0 | 2 | 2 | 12 | |
| Dave Chisnall | England |
0 | 2 | 2 | 9 | |
| Shayne Burgess | England |
0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| 14 | Adrian Lewis | England |
0 | 1 | 1 | 15 |
| Mervyn King | England |
0 | 1 | 1 | 14 | |
| Brendan Dolan | Northern Ireland |
0 | 1 | 1 | 11 | |
| Gary Anderson | Scotland |
0 | 1 | 1 | 11 | |
| Simon Whitlock | Australia |
0 | 1 | 1 | 11 | |
| Roland Scholten | Netherlands |
0 | 1 | 1 | 9 | |
| Peter Wright | Scotland |
0 | 1 | 1 | 9 | |
| Rod Harrington | England |
0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |
| Dirk van Duijvenbode | Netherlands |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Nine-dart finishes
Three nine-darters have been thrown at the World Grand Prix. The first one was in 2011.
| Player | Year (+ Round) | Method (double-in double-out) | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brendan Dolan
|
2011, Semi-Final | D20, 2 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T17, bullseye | James Wade
|
5–2 |
| James Wade
|
2014, 2nd Round | D20, 2 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T17, bullseye | Robert Thornton
|
3–2 |
| Robert Thornton
|
2014, 2nd Round | D20, 2 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T17, bullseye | James Wade
|
2–3 |
High averages
An average over 100 in a match in the World Grand Prix has been achieved 16 times, of which Phil Taylor is responsible for 9.
| Ten highest World Grand Prix one-match averages | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average | Player | Year (+ Round) | Opponent | Result |
| 106.45 | Alan Warriner
|
2001, 1st Round | Andy Jenkins
|
2–0 |
| 104.86 | Gary Anderson
|
2013, 1st Round | Jelle Klaasen
|
2–0 |
| 104.47 | Michael van Gerwen
|
2013, 1st Round | John Part
|
2–0 |
| 103.09 | Michael van Gerwen
|
2016, Quarter-Final | Simon Whitlock
|
3–1 |
| 103.02 | Phil Taylor
|
2011, Semi-Final | Richie Burnett
|
5–2 |
| 102.85 | Dave Chisnall
|
2020, 1st Round | Glen Durrant
|
2–0 |
| 102.48 | Phil Taylor
|
2010, 1st Round | Brendan Dolan
|
2–0 |
| 102.26 | Phil Taylor
|
2011, 1st Round | Peter Wright
|
2–1 |
| 101.75 | Phil Taylor
|
2010, 2nd Round | Andy Smith
|
3–0 |
| 101.71 | Phil Taylor
|
1999, Quarter-Final | Peter Evison
|
3–0 |
| Five highest losing averages | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average | Player | Year (+ Round) | Opponent | Result |
| 97.78 | Dave Chisnall
|
2018, Quarter-Final | Michael van Gerwen
|
1–3 |
| 97.20 | Gary Anderson
|
2015, 2nd Round | Ian White
|
1–3 |
| 97.03 | Phil Taylor
|
2015, 1st Round | Vincent van der Voort
|
0–2 |
| 96.84 | Michael van Gerwen
|
2020, Quarter-Final | Simon Whitlock
|
0–3 |
| 96.79 | Michael van Gerwen
|
2015, Final | Robert Thornton
|
4–5 |
| Different players with a 100+ match average – updated 10/10/20 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Total | Highest Av. | Year (+ Round) |
| Phil Taylor
|
9 | 103.02 | 2011, Semi-Final |
| Michael van Gerwen
|
4 | 104.47 | 2013, 1st Round |
| Dave Chisnall
|
2 | 102.85 | 2020, 1st Round |
| Simon Whitlock
|
2 | 101.12 | 2020, 1st Round |
| Alan Warriner
|
1 | 106.45 | 2001, 1st Round |
| Gary Anderson
|
1 | 104.86 | 2013, 1st Round |
| Five highest tournament averages | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average | Player | Year | ||
| 99.46 | Michael van Gerwen
|
2016 | ||
| 99.23 | Phil Taylor
|
2010 | ||
| 98.62 | Phil Taylor
|
2009 | ||
| 98.50 | Phil Taylor
|
2008 | ||
| 98.22 | Phil Taylor
|
2012 | ||
World Team Championship
The World Team Championship event which preceded the introduction of this event was held between 1995 and 1997.[2]
| Year | Winners | Score | Runners Up | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Eric Bristow Dennis Priestley
|
14–9 (legs) | Keith Deller Jamie Harvey
|
Butlin's Wonder West World, Ayr |
| 1996 | Bob Anderson Phil Taylor
|
18–15 (legs) | Chris Mason Steve Raw
|
Willows Variety Centre, Salford |
| 1997 | Raymond van Barneveld Roland Scholten
|
18–15 (legs) | Richie Burnett Rod Harrington
|
Butlin's South Coast World, Bognor Regis |
Media coverage
The World Grand Prix has been broadcast in the UK by Sky Sports since the first tournament.
References
- ^ Allen, Dave. "BoyleSports World Grand Prix moves to Coventry in 2020". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
- ^ "PDC World Pairs Winners". dartsdatabase.co.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2011.