|
The ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship began on December 27, 2003 at the Circus Tavern
with a record purse of £256,000, a record 48 players, and a record crowd in attendance. There were 8 qualifiers, 8 Wild Cards, and 32 top ranked PDC players lined up to compete for the enormous first place prize of £50,000.
Steve Brown was the only American in the top 32, but Tony Payne and Dan Lauby received Wild Card spots
from the Las Vegas Desert Classic and the ADA respectively. Rory Orvis from Canada also received a Wild Card spot as the
Canadian NDFC Champion. Unfortunately, all three Americans , Payne, Lauby and Brown, as well as the Canadian, Orvis, lost in the
preliminary rounds and did not advance to the final bracket of 32 players. Canadian and defending Champion John Part also fell early in the round of 32 to
Mark Dudbridge 4 sets to 3 in the first major upset of the tournament.
The final 32 bracket illustrates how the matches went up through and to the
final eight players. The following account details the final exciting matches of the tournament.
Quarter Finals
BOB DOES THE JOB
Arrers aficionados were given a treat at the Circus Tavern as Bob Anderson
rolled back the years to reach the semi-finals with a 5-2 defeat of Peter Manley. The Limestone Cowboy added the number three seed to his list of
casualties as he reached the last four for the first time in Purfleet.
The 56-year-old Anderson started with a 180 in the very first leg of the match
and took the opening set 3-2 against the throw.
The second set again went to a fifth and deciding leg with the 1988 world
champion holding his nerve to hit the bullseye and go 2-0 up. When the 20th seed started the third set with a 161 checkout, it looked if the match would
turn into a procession but One Dart showed the quality that saw him win this year’s Las Vegas Desert Classic. Manley averaged over 90 in the next two
sets, taking both 3-1 in legs, to level proceedings.
However, Anderson got right back on his saddle, coming back from two legs
to one down in the fifth to win 3-2 and then an 11-dart opening leg in the sixth set put him on the right track to go 4-2 up.
The first four legs of the final set went with the darts before Anderson hit
double top at the first attempt to clinch an epic encounter.
PAINTER EASY ON THE PALLET
Kevin Painter produced a ruthless performance in beating Mark Dudbridge 5-1
to set-up a semi-final encounter with Bob Anderson.
Flash Dudbridge had beaten two world champions in John Part and Steve
Beaton in route to this stage but the Bristolian was no match for the number ten seed.
The Artist hit a maximum 180 in the first leg of the match as last year’s semi
-finalist claimed the set 3-1. Dudbridge responded with a 117 check-out in the opening leg of the second set but he missed too many treble 20s as a
double eight saw the Cambridge thrower go 2-0 up.
A third maximum in the fourth leg of the third set extended Painter’s lead and
the writing was on the wall when the 36-year-old nailed a 116 finish in a clean sweep of the fourth set.
Painter won the first two legs of the fifth set to stretch his run to eight in a row
before Dudbridge staged a mini-comeback to take the set 3-2 as The Artist started to suffer Double Trouble.
But it was just a case of delaying the inevitable as The Artist rounded matters
off in the sixth set 3-0 as he compiled an impressive 95 average for the match.
PARTY TIME FOR WAYNE’S WORLD
Wayne Mardle reached the semi-finals in style, by seeing off Simon Whatley
5-1 in front of a packed Purfleet crowd. Mardle came out to his Hawaii 501 theme tune, sporting his trademark grin and loving every step of the walk to
the stage. But it got even better for him when the music died down, the Essex favorite dropping just six legs in the entire match.
With his support as loud as their hero’s shirt, Mardle was quickly into the
groove, winning the first two legs in what seemed the blink of an eye. Whatley, a self-confessed slow-starter, stemmed the tide by breaking back in
the next with a 116 checkout to save the set. The underdog’s relief was short-lived though, as Mardle got to the double first against the throw and coolly
dispatched 89 with two darts.
The 12th seed wasn’t missing many at the double and, when he arrived first
at the outer tramlines at the top of the second set, he made no mistake on D20 to steal the throw. There was no way back for Whatley, the next three
legs all going with the throw for another 3-1 Mardle triumph, sealed with a 12-dart fourth leg.
Chopper had yet to bear his teeth and again it was Mardle’s bark which was
loudest in the third set, a terrific 20/20/Bull finish against the throw doing the real damage in the middle leg of a 3-0 whitewash.
When the West Countryman broke Mardle for the first time to win only his
third leg of the contest and square the fourth set at 1-1, it might have been the signal for a comeback. But the favorite - 1/14 with the sponsors to reach
the last four before kick-off, to his opponent’s 13/2 - was allowed to snub out the threat by immediately breaking back, Whatley spurning three darts to get
his nose in front and Mardle finally taking a scrappy leg with his ninth fling at the double. And Mardle mopped up the set 3-1 for a four-sets-to-nil lead.
Whatley was down, but not out. Mardle took his foot off the pedal in the fifth set, enabling Chopper to break in the first leg and then hold his next two
throws for a 3-1 win, which had the local fans who’d backed a sets whitewash for their man ripping up the betting slips.
A brilliant 10-dart leg - the equal best of the week so far - won the first leg of
the sixth for Mardle on Whatley’s throw. Now it was curtains for the man from Yeovil, who in truth hadn’t really done himself justice. Mardle held his darts in
the second leg and, though he took six darts at D2 to get there, he finally crossed the finish line in the next.
POWER STEERING
Phil Taylor successfully plotted his course past Alan Warriner, beating his
rival 5-1 to set up a mouth-watering semi-final with Wayne Mardle.
The Circus Tavern was at fever pitch for the final last-eight tussle, billed as a
grudge match between two players who weren’t exactly side by side singing Auld Lange Syne on Wednesday night. And with the massed ranks of Mardle
fans from the previous match mostly transferring their backing to the underdog, Warriner was not short of support.
The Lancastrian certainly seemed lifted by the occasion as he nailed 113 to
take the opening leg, but the momentum soon swung the other way, Taylor winning the next three despite the rare sight of a three-dart score of 22 for the
10-times world champion. More familiar was the first 180 of the match for Taylor in the fourth leg, which was decided in just 13 darts.
There was an instant turn-around at the top of the second, though, when
Taylor went round the houses from 16 to 8 to 4 without hitting the double and Warriner pounced with his first fling at D12 to snatch the darts.
An 80 finish made it 2-0 Wozzer, but just to prove a lion's at its most
dangerous when its just been bitten, Taylor came firing back. Warriner had one dart at the bull in the next to level the match and missed by a fraction of
an inch. It proved to be a key moment in the match. He could only watch as The Power hit his double, rattled off a 12-darter against the throw in the next
leg and then closed out the set 3-2.
The gloves were well and truly off at the start of the third set, as the old
adversaries traded...
Continued...
Complete, in-depth coverage of the 2004 Ladbrokes.com World Darts
Championship, including World Championship Brackets, is available to our print subscribers on pages 44 – 49 of the March/April 2004 print edition.
Not a BEN subscriber yet? Why would you want to miss news like this?
Subscribe to BEN and get the rest of the story... DELIVERED! Click here for info 
|
