UK Open

UK Open
Tournament information
Venue Butlin's Minehead
Location Minehead
Country England
Established 2003
Organisation(s) PDC
Format Legs
Prize fund £300,000 (2015)
Month(s) Played June (2003–2013)
March (2014–)
Current champion(s)
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen

The UK Open is a Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) darts tournament where, following regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, 128 players compete in an elimination tournament to be crowned champion.

The tournament has the nickname, the "FA Cup of darts", because of the wide mix of players of differing experience. There are also no seedings which means the top players can be drawn against each other at any stage. Just like the FA Cup, a random draw takes place after each round to determine the matches for the next round.

From 2003 to 2013, the UK Open took place in June each year at the Reebok Stadium, in Bolton. In 2014, it moved to Butlin's Minehead taking place in early March. Phil Taylor beat Shayne Burgess in the inaugural final. Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld won the tournament in 2006, the first ever ranking tournament with the PDC in which he has played. He knocked out 13-times World Champion Phil Taylor 11–10 en route to the final where he beat Barrie Bates 13–7. He also successfully defended the title in 2007, again beating Taylor en route.

Taylor has achieved the perfect nine-dart finish four times (2004, 2005, 2007 & 2008). Mervyn King (2010) and Gary Anderson (2012), Wes Newton (2013) and Michael van Gerwen (2016) have also achieved a nine-dart leg (although Newton's was the only one of the eight to not be televised).

The tournament had a different runner-up for the first 13 years. Peter Wright became the first player to be runner-up twice when he lost in the final to Michael van Gerwen in 2015 and 2016.

Sponsors

The inaugural event in 2003 was sponsored by Sky Bet. In 2004 Budweiser became the main sponsor. After Budweiser's three-year sponsorship ended in 2006, bookmakers Blue Square took over as title sponsor in 2007 until 2009. The 2010 event was sponsored by Rileys Darts Zones.[1] From 2011 to 2013 it has been sponsored by Speedy Hire. In 2014 Coral took over sponsorship.

Sponsor Years
Sky Bet 2003
Budweiser 2004–2006 [2]
Blue Square 2007–2009 [3]
Rileys Darts Zones 2010
Speedy Hire 2011–2013
Coral 2014–present

UK Open finals

[4]

Year Champion Legs Runner-Up Total Champion Runner-Up Sponsor Venue
2003 England Phil Taylor (98.03) 18–8 England Shayne Burgess (91.36) £124,000 £30,000 £15,000 Sky Bet Reebok Stadium, Bolton
2004 Netherlands Roland Scholten (89.49) 11–6 Canada John Part (85.98) Budweiser
2005 England Phil Taylor (96.80) 13–7 England Mark Walsh (84.52)
2006 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld (91.51) 13–7 Wales Barrie Bates (82.98)
2007 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld (94.99) 16–8 Netherlands Vincent van der Voort (88.76) £150,000 Blue Square
2008 England James Wade (94.65) 11–7 United States Gary Mawson (87.33) £178,000 £35,000
2009 England Phil Taylor (100.81) 11–6 England Colin Osborne (93.24) £200,000 £40,000 £20,000
2010 England Phil Taylor (97.71) 11–5 Scotland Gary Anderson (92.41) Riley's Darts Zones
2011 England James Wade (96.25) 11–8 England Wes Newton (88.51) Speedy Hire
2012 Scotland Robert Thornton (95.44) 11–5 England Phil Taylor (98.58)
2013 England Phil Taylor (107.04) 11–4 England Andy Hamilton (97.95)
2014 England Adrian Lewis (109.13) 11–1 England Terry Jenkins (93.15) £250,000 £50,000 £25,000 Coral Butlins Resort, Minehead
2015 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (98.43) 11–5 Scotland Peter Wright (99.33) £300,000 £60,000 £30,000
2016 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (106.68) 11–4 Scotland Peter Wright (98.33)

Finalists

Player Won Runner-up
England Phil Taylor51
Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld20
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen20
England James Wade20
Netherlands Roland Scholten10
Scotland Robert Thornton10
England Adrian Lewis10
Scotland Peter Wright02
England Shayne Burgess01
Canada John Part01
England Mark Walsh01
Wales Barrie Bates01
Netherlands Vincent van der Voort01
United States Gary Mawson01
England Colin Osborne01
Scotland Gary Anderson01
England Wes Newton01
England Andy Hamilton01
England Terry Jenkins01

Format

As of 2016 qualifying events for amateur players are organised by Rileys and held in various locations across the UK. 32 players qualify through these events.

In addition there are six UK Open qualifiers for professional players, which also form part of the PDC Pro Tour. These events are only open to players holding an active PDPA membership - either a tour card or associate membership. Prize money won in these six qualifiers is then collated into an Order of Merit table.

The format is as follows (as of 2016):

The draws for the first and second rounds are made in full after all qualifying players are known, while the draws for the third round onward are made separately on stage as soon as each preceding round has concluded.

Media coverage

From 2003 until 2013, coverage for the UK Open was shown on Sky Sports in June, but from 2014, the tournament was moved to March and shown on ITV4.

References

http://www.rileys.co.uk/tournaments/pdc-uk-open-qualifiers

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, March 08, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.