World Series of Darts
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The World Series of Darts is a Professional Darts Corporation event new for 2006. It was held in the USA and saw the top 16 ranked Professional Darts Corporation players take on 16 American qualifiers, 12 of which will be winners from several tournaments and 4 from a 'Friday Night Madness' at the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut. The PDC offered an aspirational prize of US$1,000,000 if an American player won the tournament. The prize for a non-US winner was US$100,000.
2006 showed a huge gulf in class between the PDC pros and the American challengers, with only one home-player out of the 16 that started the tournament, John Kuczynski, getting through to the last 16 after a 6-5 (legs) defeat of John Part. He defeated Wayne Mardle 6-3 before losing 9-6 to no 3 seed and eventual semi-finalist Ronnie Baxter.
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[edit] 2006 Qualifiers
- Isen Veljic of Chicago, who qualified from the Virginia Beach Qualifier beating Cabell Stapes in the final.
- Roger Carter of Auburn, Alabama, who qualified from the Atlanta qualifier, beating Scott Wollaston in the final. Carter has played in the BDO Embassy World Championship and the PDC's Las Vegas Desert Classic in 2003.
- Jim Widmayer of Staten Island who qualified from the New Jersey qualifier, beating Jerry Van Loan in the final. The New Jersey qualifier also saw Darin Young and John Kuczynski who had played in the 2006 PDC Ladbrokes.com World Championship. Widmayer has also played in the 1994 PDC World Matchplay.
- James Watkins of Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania qualified from the March 4,2006 Philadelphia qualifier, defeating Tom Stewart in the final. Watkin's most notable darts career highlight is winning back-to-back National 501 Singles titles in 1993 and 1994.
- David DePriest of Grand Rapids, Michigan qualified from the March 5,2006 Chicago qualifier, defeating Joe Slivan of Orlando in the final.
- Joseph Carter Chaney of Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee qualified from the March 11, 2006 Washington, D.C. qualifier, defeating Darin Young.
- John Kuczynski of Zion Grove, Pennsylvania qualified from the March 12, 2006 Las Vegas qualifier, defeating Sean Downs of Colton, California.
- Tim Grossman of Hudson, New York, the 2000 Cricket national champion, qualified from the March 18, 2006 Windsor Locks, Connecticut qualifier, defeating Dave Marienthal of Bloomingdale, New Jersey in a seventh leg tie-breaker.
- Joe Slivan of Winter Park, Florida (who lost to David DePriest in the finals of the March 5, 2006 Chicago qualifier) qualified from the March 19, 2006 Houston qualifier, defeating Chris Yates of Midland, Texas.
- Ray Carver of Nashua, New Hampshire qualified from the April 1, 2006 Marlborough, Massachusetts qualifier, defeating Jeff Russell of Dover, New Hampshire.
- Joe Efter of Danielson, Connecticut qualified from the April 2, 2006 Ronkonkoma, New York qualifier, defeating Brad Wethington of St. Louis.
- Tom Curtin of Townsend, Massachusetts qualified from the April 22, 2006 Somerville, Massachusetts qualifier, defeating Dave Lambert of Lowville, New York.
[edit] 2006 WSoD Results
| First Round best of 11 legs losers $2,000 |
Second Round best of 11 legs losers $5,000 |
Quarter-Finals best of 17 legs losers $10,000 |
Semi-Finals best of 21 legs losers $20,000 |
Final best of 25 legs winner $100,000 runner-up $48,000 |
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| seed1 | Colin Lloyd | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| US1 | Isen Veljic | 2 | Lloyd | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed16 | Adrian Lewis | 6 | Lewis | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| US3 | Jim Widmayer | 0 | Lewis | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed8 | Andy Jenkins | 6 | Ovens | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| US12 | Tom Curtin | 1 | A. Jenkins | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed9 | Denis Ovens | 6 | Ovens | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| FNM #2 | Bill Davis | 4 | Lewis | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed5 | Peter Manley | 6 | Priestley | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| US10 | Ray Carver | 3 | Manley | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed12 | Mark Walsh | 6 | Walsh | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| FNM #1 | Jeffrey Russell | 4 | Manley | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed4 | Roland Scholten | 6 | Priestley | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||
| US2 | Joseph Carter | 1 | Scholten | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed13 | Dennis Priestley | 6 | Priestley | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| US11 | Joe Efter | 1 | Lewis | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed2 | Phil Taylor | 6 | Taylor | 13 | ||||||||||||||||||
| FNM #3 | Tim O'Gorman | 2 | Taylor | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed15 | Terry Jenkins | 6 | T. Jenkins | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| US8 | Tim Grossman | 4 | Taylor | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed7 | Kevin Painter | 6 | Dudbridge | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| US4 | James Watkins | 3 | Painter | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed10 | Mark Dudbridge | 6 | Dudbridge | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| US9 | Joe Slivan | 0 | Taylor | 11 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed6 | Wayne Mardle | 6 | Baxter | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| US5 | David DePriest | 3 | Mardle | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed11 | John Part | 5 | Kuczynski | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| US7 | John Kuczynski | 6 | Kuczynski | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed3 | Ronnie Baxter | 6 | Baxter | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||
| FNM #4 | Brad Wethington | 1 | Baxter | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| seed14 | Alan Warriner-Little | 6 | Warriner-Little | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| US6 | Joseph Carter Chaney | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
- FNM = Friday Night Madness Qualifier
- Total Prize Fund = $300,000
- $1,000,000 Prize for a United States champion not won.
[edit] TV Ratings
ESPN broadcast the first of eight one-hour segments on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 in prime-time at 7pm. ESPN’s cameras had followed the complete US qualifying process from beginning to end, concluding with the main event itself in Connecticut on May 20-21.
The show was scheduled in-between Sportscenter and World Series of Poker which usually score a Nielsen rating of around 1.0 (approx 1,102,139 households). WSoD premiered at approximately a 0.43 (approx 474,000 households / 559,000 adult viewers), then started sliding for episodes 2 and 3. ESPN then pulled the World Series of Darts programming from its original prime time slot on ESPN1, and relegated it to mid-afternoon broadcast positions on their lesser-viewed sister channel ESPN2.[1].
[edit] 2007 Event?
The relative lack of success with the viewing figures has caused speculation over whether the tournament will be held again in 2007. However, PDC chairman and promoter Barry Hearn is keen to build the popularity of darts in the United States having already introduced the Las Vegas Desert Classic. Having promoted the 2006 event as a "tremendous development for darts in the US" [2] his track record suggests he will look at everything including possibly changing the format before deciding to scrap the event.
The PDC released their provisional calendar for 2007 tournaments on October 4, 2006 [3]. The World Series of Darts is in the schedule for May 18-20, 2007 but the event is listed as being "some details to be confirmed".
