1997 WDC World Darts Championship

The 1997 Red Band World Darts Championship was held between 29 December 1996 and 5 January 1997 at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, Essex. It was the fourth World Championship organised by the World Darts Council, which had acrimoniously split from the British Darts Organisation in 1992–93. As a result of an ongoing legal battle, this would be the last time that the WDC name would be used – an out-of-court settlement (Tomlin Order) in June 1997 meant that the organisation had to change its name to the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).

1997 Red Band World Darts Championship
Tournament information
Dates29 December 1996 –
5 January 1997
VenueCircus Tavern
LocationPurfleet
Country England
Organisation(s)PDC (WDC)
FormatSets
Final – best of 11
Prize fund£99,500
Winner's share£45,000
High checkout170 England Peter Evison (2x)
170 England Steve Raw
170 England Dennis Priestley
Champion(s)
England Phil Taylor
«1996 1998»

Paul Lim, who famously hit a nine dart finish at the 1990 Embassy Championship appeared at his first WDC World Championship – he had only managed to qualify once for the Embassy since the split, losing a second round match to John Part in 1994.

The Championship saw two tight semi-finals, the most memorable of which was the clash between mentor and protégé – Eric Bristow and Phil Taylor. Taylor emerged victorious 5–4 in sets to reach the final. He matched his mentor's feat of five World Championship titles when he beat Dennis Priestley 6–3 in the final.[1] They were now level as the most successful players of all-time.

Seeds

  1. England Dennis Priestley
  2. England Phil Taylor
  3. England Bob Anderson
  4. England Peter Evison
  5. Scotland Jamie Harvey
  6. England Alan Warriner
  7. England Keith Deller
  8. England Rod Harrington

Prize money

The prize fund was £99,500.

Position (num. of players) Prize money
(Total: £99,500)
Winner (1) £45,000
Runner-Up (1) £10,000
Third place (1) £5,000
Fourth place (1) £4,000
Quarter-finalists (4) £3,000
Group stage runners-up (8) £1,500
Group stage 3rd place (8) £1,250
Highest finish bonus (1) £1,500

Results

Preliminary round

A best of five sets preliminary round match took place between they were tied on the rankings.

Av. Player Score Player Av.
85.89 Ritchie Gardner England 3 – 1 United States Dave Kelly 78.20
90.00 Paul Lim Singapore 3 – 2 Republic of Ireland Tom Kirby 83.00
95.05 Chris Mason England 3 – 0 England Peter Manley 89.10
101.89 Gary Mawson United States 3 – 1 England Harry Robinson 87.33
75.21 Graeme Stoddart England 3 – 1 England Paul Knighton 91.83
79.44 Steve Raw England 3 – 2 England Kevin Burrows 59.10
93.99 Dennis Smith England 3 – 0 United States Jerry Umberger 50.01
73.45 Sean Downs United States 3 – 2 Northern Ireland Steve Brennan 69.47

Group Stages

Knockout stages

Quarter-finals (best of 9 sets)
2–3 January
Semi-finals (best of 9 sets)
4 January
Final (best of 11 sets)
5 January
         
A1 England Eric Bristow 85.78 5
B1 England Alan Warriner (6) 88.81 3
A1 England Eric Bristow 86.97 4
D1 England Phil Taylor (2) 93.73 5
C1 England Keith Deller (7) 87.39 1
D1 England Phil Taylor (2) 98.58 5
D1 England Phil Taylor (2) 100.91 6
H1 England Dennis Priestley (1) 96.79 3
E1 England Peter Evison (4) 91.39 5
F1 Scotland Jamie Harvey (5) 83.96 3
E1 England Peter Evison (4) 91.32 4
H1 England Dennis Priestley (1) 94.34 5
G1 England Rod Harrington (8) 94.50 2
H1 England Dennis Priestley (1) 94.73 5

Third place play-off: England (4) Peter Evison 83.25 4 – 2 England Eric Bristow 83.23

Representation from different countries

This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship. Four countries were represented in the World Championship, one less than in the previous championship.

England
ENG
United States
USA
Canada
CAN
Scotland
SCO
Republic of Ireland
IRL
Total
Final 200002
Semis 400004
Quarters 700108
Group Stages 18511126

References

  1. "Darts Database. Database of Darts Results Players and Statistics". www.dartsdatabase.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 October 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
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