2001 PDC World Darts Championship

The 2001 Skol World Darts Championship was held between December 28, 2000–January 3, 2001 at the Circus Tavern, Purfleet.

The tournament saw a notable first as Gayl King of Canada became the first woman to appear in the men's World Championship, having been given a wild card by organisers the Professional Darts Corporation. It was seen as a publicity stunt by the PDC to raise the profile of the game and also came in the year that rival organisation, the British Darts Organisation had announced that they were starting a Women's World Championship to run alongside the men's championship at Lakeside.

Five-time former World Champion, Eric Bristow missed his first World Championship for 23 years, having played each year since the World Championship began in 1978. John Lowe was now the only player with a 100% appearance record. Peter Manley became the first top seed to go out in the first round since the PDC event began in 1994.

The final was between John Part and Phil Taylor. Part won the BDO World Championship in 1994. Part had won only two matches in his previous three attempts in the PDC World Darts Championship, he defeated Colin Lloyd, Dennis Smith, Alan Warriner and Rod Harrington to reach the final.

Taylor defeated Nigel Justice, Les Fitton, Keith Deller and Dave Askew to reach the final. Taylor never lost a single set from the quarterfinals on and lost just three legs during the final.

The final was won 7-0 by Phil Taylor. This was Taylor's seventh consecutive World title and his ninth in total.

Tournament Review

Day One

In one of the first games of the tournament, the number eight seed, Dave Askew came within a dart of a nine dart finish. He missed out on £100,000. In the end, his match with Mick Manning (World no. 10) went to a sudden death leg in the fifth and final set. Askew won it to take the first round match by 3 sets to 2.

1995 BDO World Champion Richie Burnett kicked off his campaign with a 3-0 whitewash of the American Steve Brown. Burnett had 2 12-dart legs and finished with an average of 103. Alex Roy, also went through to Round 2 with a 3-2 win against Steve Raw, who had recovered from 2-0 down to level the scores.

However a shock followed, Peter Manley the number 1 seed was eliminated in the first round by world no. 21 Jamie Harvey from Scotland. Manley levelled at two sets apiece after trailing 2-0. However, Harvey won set five by 3 legs to 1 to book a slot in Round Two. Another shock was to follow, Dennis Priestley, 2000 runner-up and seeded fifth, went out to Keith Deller, the 1983 World Champion 3-2 in a final set that went 6-4 to Deller. Les Fitton knocked out Denis Ovens 3-1, whilst three time World Champion John Lowe won 3-1 against Gary Spedding who was making his first appearance in the World Darts Championship.

Phil Taylor won 3-0 versus Nigel Justice, winning with a 151 checkout against the Englishman.

Day Two

Friday began with the Number 2 seed and 1993 world finalist Alan Warriner defeating Reg Harding by 3 sets to nil. Despite struggling to take the first set against a player with two broken ribs. Cliff Lazarenko started off his world title campaign with a 3-0 win over Canadian Scott Cummings. Paul Lim went through to face Warriner in the second round after defeating Dan Lauby 3-1.

Then came the big match of the round, Graeme Stoddart against Gayl King. King started well taking a 1-0 lead against Stoddart who then recovered to win 3-1 and then called for a championship to be held for women only and one for men only. (A BDO women's one takes place whilst at the Lakeside during the Worlds week.) Rod Harrington then kicked off his campaign to reach a second final at the Circus with a 3-1 win over 1988 champion Bob Anderson.

In other games, John Part began his tournament with a 3-0 win over Colin Lloyd. Dennis Smith would be his round 2 opponent after Smith eliminated former World number 2 Peter Evison in the first round by 3-0. Then another seed went out, Shayne Burgess was defeated 3-0 by Roland Scholten. Scholten being very impressive in the three sets that were played, One leg being won in 11 darts.

Day Three

Saturday saw all eight second round matches played, Still over the best of 5 sets. Alan Warriner booked his place in the quarter-finals with a hardfought 3-2 win over Paul Lim, who had chances aplenty to send the 2nd seed for the championships out of the tournament. Warriner took the fifth set by five legs to three. Phil Taylor also struggled into the quarter-finals, Les Fitton taking a 1 set to 0 lead in their second round match. Taylor then recovered to take the match by 3 sets to 1 and extended his winning streak on stage at the Circus to 32 matches and 36 wins from 37 in total; His 94 final loss 6-1 v Dennis Priestley the only loss. Dave Askew nearly went out to Alex Roy, the number 8 seed winning 6 legs in a row to triumph 3-2 over Roy.

7th Seed John Part, also went through but could have walked off 10–15 minutes earlier a 3-1 winner over Dennis Smith. In the end, Part won 3-1 in the fourth to win the match by 3 sets to 2. Roland Scholten completed a second consecutive 3-0 win to become the only man through with a 6-0 record. Today's victim being Cliff Lazarenko. In a battle of two former world champions. Keith Deller taking a second 3-2 win to end the challenge of Wales' Richie Burnett. Rod Harrington also went through, the home man winning 3-0 against Graeme Stoddart.

Jamie Harvey continued his run at the Circus, defeating former champion John Lowe by 3-0.

Day Five

After a day off for New Year's Eve, The World Darts Championships started 2001 at the quarter-final stage. Matches now had been extended to the best of 7 sets (first to 4) for the quarter-finals and this is where the potential champions begin to show their proper darts.

Phil Taylor continued his march to his 9th crown with a 4-0 whitewash of 1983 world champion Keith Deller, who played well short of his best. Taylor was now the big favourite to win his 9th world title. John Part caused a surprise by knocking out 2nd seed Alan Warriner by a very easy 4-1. Part continuing his run towards a second world title. Jamie Harvey's great run came to an end, losing 4-0 to Dave Askew, winning just 2 out of 14 legs that were played.

Rod Harrington delighted the home fans by eliminating Roland Scholten 4-2 in a very tough game to call. He will now face John Part for a place in a second World final.

Day Six

Semi-Finals. Phil Taylor started off where he left off from last night and took his place in a 10th world final by ending the brilliant run of Dave Askew the 8th seed in a 6-0 whitewash. Then the second semi brought drama.

Part seeded 7, started off brilliantly, taking a 5-2 lead against the 6th seeded Harrington. Then Harrington turned it around to level up at 5 all and delight the locals. The final set began by Part taking a 122 checkout to go one nil up. Two legs later and Part misses double 16 to go through. Harrington takes double top to force a 2 clear leg situation. Part winning both with an average checkout of 123.5.

Day Seven

Part possibly suffered the effects from the previous night and was unable to perform to his best against Taylor. The Canadian managed to win just three legs during the whole match and Taylor winning ran out a comfortable winner in the end by 7 sets to 0.

Results