Premier League Darts
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The Whyte & Mackay Premier League is a darts tournament which launched on January 20, 2005, on Sky Sports. The league is now played weekly from February to May, having originally started as a fortnightly fixture.
The tournament originally featured seven players and now sees eight of the biggest names from the PDC circuit competing in a round-robin format, with matches held across the country at different venues.
The new sponsors for 2008 will be Whyte & Mackay who succeed Holsten having signed a three-year contract to support the event in October 2007.[1] The prize fund will rise from £265,000 to £340,000 in 2008 - with the guaranteed minimum of £20,000 (previously £15,000) for each player that qualifies. The top prize of £100,000 matches the prize of the 2008 PDC World Champion.
One of the biggest surprises of the tournament was non-playing related and featured the announcement in February 2006 that Raymond van Barneveld was switching from the British Darts Organisation to the PDC, having been a previous four-time BDO World Champion. Van Barneveld had been runner-up in the BDO World final just weeks before the announcement.
Phil Taylor has dominated this event, winning all four competitions staged between 2005 and 2008. He went unbeaten throughout the first three seasons before James Wade ended his 44 match run in the first match of the 2008 season.
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[edit] Television Coverage
The matches have been broadcast on Thursday nights on Sky Sports since the tournament inception. Originally the league alternated with Premier League Snooker one week and Premier League Darts the next. From 2006, the snooker moved to late autumn - giving the Premier League darts a straight weekly run in the spring.
American sports channel OLN aired the 2006 Premier League Darts season on a slight delay, in August 2006.
German sports channel DSF (Deutsches Sport Fernsehen) has broadcasted many matches of the past two years live on TV and gives coverages of a selection of matches.
The PDC announced in January 2007 that the contract with Sky Television for coverage of the Premier League had been extended to 2010. [1]
[edit] Previous Finals
| Year | Champion | Score | Runner-Up | Sponsor | Final Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 |  Phil Taylor |
16-4 (legs) | Colin Lloyd |
888.com | G-Mex, Manchester |
| 2006 | Phil Taylor |
16-6 (legs) |  Roland Scholten |
Holsten | Plymouth Pavilions |
| 2007 | Phil Taylor |
16-6 (legs) | Terry Jenkins |
Holsten | The Brighton Centre |
| 2008 | Phil Taylor |
16-8 (legs) | James Wade |
Whyte & Mackay | Cardiff International Arena |
[edit] Tournament records
- Most titles: 4 - Phil Taylor
- Longest unbeaten run: 44 matches - Phil Taylor (2005-2008)
- Biggest victories (group stages): 11-1 Phil Taylor v Wayne Mardle (2005), 11-1 Phil Taylor v Peter Manley (2005).
- Biggest victories (final stages): 16-4 Phil Taylor v Colin Lloyd (2005 final)
- Whitewashes (since removal of "dead" legs in 2006): Colin Lloyd 8-0 Terry Jenkins (2007), "Phil Taylor 8-0 Wayne Mardle (2008)
[edit] Appearances
James Wade will make his Premier League debut in the 2008 Premier League. This will bring the total to 13 different players in the league since its inaugural year, 2005. Currently, Peter Manley and Phil Taylor are the only two players to appear in every Premier League competition.
- 4 Peter Manley 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
- 4 Phil Taylor 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
- 3 Roland Scholten 2005, 2006, 2007
- 3 Colin Lloyd 2005, 2006, 2007
- 3 Raymond van Barneveld 2006, 2007, 2008
- 3 Wayne Mardle 2005, 2006, 2008
- 2 Terry Jenkins 2007, 2008
- 2 Adrian Lewis 2007, 2008
- 2 John Part 2005, 2008
- 1 Mark Dudbridge 2005
- 1 Ronnie Baxter 2006
- 1 Dennis Priestley 2007
- 1 James Wade 2008
[edit] 2008 Event
see article: 2008 Premier League Darts
[edit] References
- ^ Whyte & Mackay to sponsor Premier League planetdarts.tv
[edit] External links
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