1978 BDO World Darts Championship
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1978 Embassy World Darts Championship was the very first World Professional Championships. The tournament was organised by the British Darts Organisation who had already set up the WDF World Cup and Winmau World Masters in its five years since formation.
The championships became possible when Imperial Tobacco approached the BDO with a view to sponsoring a major world darts event. Imperial, who already sponsored the World Snooker Championship with their Embassy brand also signed up to the darts version, which they were to sponsor for 25 years. The relationship only ended when the UK government decided to end tobacco companies right to sponsor sporting events.
BBC Television covered the event and began a long broadcasting partnership with the BDO.
The tournament was held between February 6 and February 10. The tournament was held, for the only time, at the Heart of the Midlands Club in Nottingham. The BDO decided to move the event to Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke-on-Trent for the following year.
Eric Bristow was the number one seed for the championship, but suffered a surprise 1st round defeat to Conrad Daniels of the United States. The number 3 seed, Leighton Rees of Wales beat number 2 seed, England's John Lowe 11-7 in the final. This was the only year that the tournament was played in a matchplay format of legs, rather than sets which came into operation from 1979 onwards.
[edit] Prize Money
Total Prize fund was £10,500
- Champion £3,000
- Runner-up £1,700
- Third Place £1,000
- Fourth Place £800
- Quarter finalists £500
- 1st round losers £250
[edit] The Results
| 1st Round Best of 11 legs |
Quarter Finals Best of 11 legs |
Semi Finals Best of 15 legs |
Final Best of 21 legs |
||||||||||||||
| 1 |  Eric Bristow |
3 | |||||||||||||||
 Conrad Daniels |
6 | Conrad Daniels |
4 | ||||||||||||||
| 7 | Nicky Virachkul |
6 | 7 | Nicky Virachkul |
6 | ||||||||||||
 Hillyard Rossiter |
0 | 7 | Nicky Virachkul |
7 | |||||||||||||
| 5 |  Alan Evans |
6 | 3 | Leighton Rees |
8 | ||||||||||||
| Alan Glazier |
4 | 5 | Alan Evans |
3 | |||||||||||||
| Leighton Rees |
6 | 3 | Leighton Rees |
6 | |||||||||||||
 Barry Atkinson |
0 | 3 | Leighton Rees |
11 | |||||||||||||
| 4 |  Rab Smith |
6 | 2 | John Lowe |
7 | ||||||||||||
 Patrick Clifford |
0 | 4 | Rab Smith |
3 | |||||||||||||
| 6 |  Stefan Lord |
6 | 6 | Stefan Lord |
6 | ||||||||||||
| Kenth Ohlsson |
3 | 6 | Stefan Lord |
4 | |||||||||||||
| Tim Brown |
6 | 2 | John Lowe |
8 | |||||||||||||
| 8 | Tony Brown |
3 | Tim Brown |
1 | |||||||||||||
| Bobby Semple |
1 | 2 | John Lowe |
6 | |||||||||||||
| 2 | John Lowe |
6 | |||||||||||||||
3rd place match Best of 9 legs Nicky Virachkul 5-4 Stefan Lord
| World Darts Championship |
|---|
| World Professional Darts Championship |
| 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 |
| BDO World Championship |
| 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| PDC World Championship |
| 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| Winners and statistics |
| List of winners from 1978 to present |
