2008 World Matchplay (darts)

Stan James World Matchplay
Tournament information
Dates July 20–26
Venue Winter Gardens
Location Blackpool
Country England
Organisation(s) PDC
Format Legs
Prize fund £300,000
Winners share £60,000
High checkout 161 Matt Clark
Quarter Final
vs James Wade
Champion(s)
Phil Taylor

The 2008 Stan James World Matchplay was the 15th annual staging of the tournament by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament took place from Sunday July 20 to Saturday July 26. It was staged at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. World number three, James Wade went into the competition as the defending champion and managed to reach the final for the third year in a row, but was defeated by top seed Phil Taylor 18-9 who won his ninth World Matchplay championship.

Contents

Prize fund

A total of £300,000 was available for the players, divided based on the following performances:

Winner - £60,000
Runner-up - £30,000
Semi-finalists - £17,000
Quarter-finalists - £12,000
Second round losers - £8,000
First round losers - £4,000

Nine-dart jackpot - £10,000

Qualification

The qualification process for the World Matchplay differed this year. The top 16 in the PDC Order of the Merit after the 2008 UK Open qualified automatically as the 16 seeds. The other 16 places would be made up of the 16 highest ranked players (not already in the top 16) from the 2008 Players Championship Order of Merit - decided by the various Player Championship events taking place on the PDC Pro Tour from January 2008 - the cutoff point was the Las Vegas Players Championship just before the 2008 Las Vegas Desert Classic.[1]

Thus, the participants were:

PDC Top 16

PDPA Players Championship qualifiers

Draw

1st Round,[2] 20–22 July,
b.o.19, losers £4,000		   2nd Round, 22–23 July,
b.o.25, losers £8,000		   Quarter Finals, 24 July,
b.o.31, losers £12,000		   Semi Finals, 25 July,
b.o.33, losers £17,000		   Final, 26 July, b.o.35
£60,000 / £30,000
1   Phil Taylor 103.53 10  
  Steve Beaton 97.91 6     1   Taylor 109.70 13  
16   C. Osborne 96.78 10   16   Osborne 97.08 5  
  M. King 91.48 7       1   Taylor 95.78 16  
8   A. Lewis 88.75 8         McDine 89.76 6  
  K. McDine 96.02 10       McDine 92.29 13
9   C. Lloyd 91.37 6     Walsh 95.02 9  
  M. Walsh 100.41 10       1   Taylor 105.59 17  
5   T. Jenkins 92.48 10       12   Priestley 96.56 8  
  Alex Roy 91.32 6     5   Jenkins 93.10 11  
12   D. Priestley 91.13 10   12   Priestley 94.60 13  
  A. Gray 84.63 8       12   Priestley 94.10 16
4   John Part 85.24 10       13   Tabern 90.65 14  
  Chris Mason 81.97 3     4   Part 90.26 7
13   A. Tabern 95.75 10   13   Tabern 93.53 13  
  V.v.d. Voort 92.25 8       1   Phil Taylor 109.47 18
2   v. Barneveld 88.41 11       3   James Wade 102.58 9
  Mark Frost 82.17 9     2   v. Barneveld 90.99 13  
15   K. Painter 86.57 8     Eccles 84.83 3  
  T. Eccles 88.73 10       2   v. Barneveld 89.32 16  
7   A. Hamilton 92.59 12       10   Mardle 87.90 18  
  v. Gerwen 93.22 14       v. Gerwen 88.13 9
10   W. Mardle 88.29 11   10   Mardle 91.70 13  
  M. Dudbridge 88.28 9       10   Mardle 88.92 5
6   R. Scholten 90.56 4       3   Wade 102.73 17  
  Matt Clark 90.75 10       Clark 88.39 13  
11   P. Manley 91.14 10   11   Manley 88.91 6  
  Denis Ovens 90.59 4         Clark 93.27 12
3   J. Wade 96.31 10       3   Wade 97.85 16  
  Wayne Jones 91.04 4     3   Wade 97.99 13
14   R. Baxter 93.33 10   14   Baxter 93.06 7  
  Andy Smith 84.45 4  

Scores after player's names are three-dart averages (total points scored divided by darts thrown and multiplied by 3)

All games had to be won by 2 clear legs (e.g in Rd 1 there could not be a 10-9 scoreline it had to be 11-9 or 10-8)

Statistics

Player Played Legs Won Legs Lost LWAT 100+ 140+ 180s High Checkout 3-dart Average
Phil Taylor 5 74 34 30 143 92 36 160 104.81
James Wade 5 65 46 28 120 95 42 157 99.49
Steve Beaton 1 6 10 0 19 14 4 152 97.91
Mark Walsh 2 19 19 7 60 26 12 96 97.72
Colin Osborne 2 15 20 5 44 19 10 110 96.93
Dennis Priestley 4 47 50 18 131 62 13 155 94.10
Alan Tabern 3 37 31 14 98 52 14 120 93.31
Ronnie Baxter 2 17 17 7 44 23 4 102 93.20
Terry Jenkins 2 21 19 9 52 30 9 160 92.79
Kevin McDine 3 29 33 9 87 35 15 160 92.69
Andy Hamilton 1 12 14 5 35 18 4 140 92.59
Vincent van der Voort 1 8 10 3 18 15 5 96 92.25
Mervyn King 1 7 10 1 22 13 1 116 91.49
Colin Lloyd 1 6 10 2 22 5 2 127 91.37
Alex Roy 1 6 10 3 27 13 2 116 91.32
Wayne Jones 1 4 10 1 18 12 1 116 91.04
Matt Clark 3 35 26 11 75 34 9 161 90.80
Michael van Gerwen 2 23 25 9 64 29 8 112 90.68
Denis Ovens 1 4 10 1 22 10 3 110 90.59
Roland Scholten 1 4 10 0 17 6 1 74 90.56
Peter Manley 2 16 17 5 48 20 8 156 90.03
Raymond van Barneveld 3 40 30 16 91 44 6 138 89.57
Wayne Mardle 4 47 51 16 133 65 12 155 89.20
Adrian Lewis 1 8 10 3 17 14 4 116 88.75
Mark Dudbridge 1 9 11 2 23 18 5 160 88.28
John Part 2 17 16 6 26 24 7 120 87.75
Tony Eccles 2 13 21 4 54 11 4 157 86.78
Kevin Painter 1 8 10 3 26 10 2 76 86.57
Adrian Gray 1 8 10 3 23 7 3 81 84.63
Andy Smith 1 4 10 1 22 5 2 80 84.45
Mark Frost 1 9 11 5 29 13 2 102 82.17
Chris Mason 1 3 10 1 26 3 0 115 81.97

Results

Round 1, Sunday 20 July

Evening Session

Round 1, Monday 21 July

Afternoon Session

Evening Session

Round 1 and 2, Tuesday 22 July

Afternoon Session

Evening Session

Round 2

Round 2, Wednesday 23 July

Afternoon Session

Evening Session

Quarter Finals, Thursday 24 July

Afternoon Session

Evening Session

Semi Finals, Friday 25 July

Final, Saturday 26 July

The Aftermath

Phil Taylor

Taylor was reduced to tears upon winning the second most prestigious title in the PDC for the ninth time. He could not speak to interviewers and simply stood on the stage with a tearful look in his eyes. Later on, Taylor explained that he was overwhelmed by all of the support that he'd received, he also explained how he once thought he was never going to win the title ever again.

James Wade

Wade took his loss in good spirit. Despite not winning the tournament (as he did in 2007), he has now almost caught up with Raymond van Barneveld in the world rankings and is only £4000 behind him.

References

  1. ^ 2008 Order of Merit explanation obtained 6 July 2008
  2. ^ 2008 Stan James World Matchplay tickets obtained 6 July 2008
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