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All of North America was waiting in anticipation of this historic event.
The first North American dart tournament to be aired on Fox Sports World live for a full 28 hours in 7 seperate 4 hour sessions. America was ready, the players were ready, and the spectators were ready.
A new format was introduced at this year’s Desert Classic.
In each of the four men’s qualifiers, four players would advance to the staged, televised tournament to join the top 8 players in the world already seeded into the tournament. This would mean 24 players would be competing for the top prize. To get down to eight players, a round robin format of eight groups of three players each would compete on stage, and one player from each group would advance to the quarter finals. A round robin format meant that each player would have at least two matches televised on stage.
On the women’s side, only one from each of the four qualifiers would advance to the semi
finals. The semi finals and finals would be played on stage, but only the final would be aired on television.
Having the women’s final on television is a big step from last year when no women’s darts were televised.
The qualifier brackets are shown below to show how the players who made it to the stage
earned their position. The story begins with the draw into the 8 round robin groups.
 SESSION ONE
The first seesion of the live televised
competition featured 6 matches between the qualifiers of Groups 1-6. Each match in the round robin competition was the
best of 15 legs of 501. A long game, but short, if one player gets off to a poor start.
The first match featured Alex Roy versus Terry Jenkins. Jenkins took the first
legand posted the first 180 of the match in the second leg. After cleaning up the double, he opened the third leg with
another 180, putting the pressure on Roy right from the start. It was a short distance to the double to take a 3 games to nil lead.
Roy figured he better not give Jenkins too big a spot and came back to take leg
4. With the start in leg 5, Roy opened with two 140s and a turn later hit 168 to leave 8 which he erased, but not
before Jenkins missed two darts at double 16 and 8, respectively. Getting a second game back brought the score to 3-2, Jenkins.
Roy levelled the match at 3 games all, Then, Jenkins took the 7th to lead at
the half way point. Jenkins nailed his third 180 of the match in the next leg,
but Roy hit his first 180 of the match right after. Though it was timely, it did not faze Jenkins who finished to take a 2 game lead. Jenkins took his
second three games on the trot to take a 6 games to 3 lead.
Roy was beginning to run out of time, as Jenkins needed only two games to
send him off. Roy took one back in the 10th, stroked a 180 in the next leg,
but could not catch Jenkins who ran off three 140s at the start. Now, with the match at 7-4, Jenkins needed only one game to win, meaning Roy would
need to take 4 games in a row to survive. With Roy on 36, Jenkins took 76 in two darts, never looking back.
Next up were the two qualifiers from Group 2, Bob Anderson and Dave Smith.
Smith took the first leg, but Anderson came back taking the next 2. Smith levelled the match at 2 games each in the 4th.
That’s when things started to heat up...
The complete 13 page, LVDC II report, chronicling all of the exciting,
blow-by-blow events of this landmark, televised tournament, can only be found in our September/October 2003 print edition. Also included
are 18 photos of event participants and winners, as well as all of the detailed Qualifier Brackets. (Pages 38 - 50)
If you’ve got our July/August 2003 edition, which included the LVDC II
Souvenir Program, and you don’t have this one —you’re missing the best half of the story!
Click here to view Las Vegas Desert Classic II results recap...
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