1993 BDO World Darts Championship

The 1993 Embassy World Darts Championship was the 16th staging of the competition, and it turned out to be the last time that the sport had a unified World Championship. In 1994 following a breakaway the PDC staged its own World Championship for the first time.

Embassy World Darts Championship
Tournament information
Dates1–9 January 1993
VenueLakeside Country Club
LocationFrimley Green, Surrey
CountryEngland
Organisation(s)BDO
FormatSets
Final – best of 11
Prize fund£128,500
Winner's share£30,000
High checkout170 Raymond van Barneveld
Champion(s)
John Lowe
«1992 1994»

In 1989 and 1990, the Embassy World Championship was the only darts tournament which had received television coverage, and a group of 16 players (including all but one of the previous World Champions) wanted to appoint a PR consultant to improve the image of the game. They created the World Darts Council (WDC), later the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in late January 1992, soon after a controversial VHS release of the 1992 Embassy World Final between Phil Taylor and Mike Gregory.

By the time of the 1993 Embassy World Championship, the WDC had already held their own tournament, the 1992 Lada UK Classic (won by Mike Gregory) in October 1992. The tournament had been broadcast on Anglia Television, and the WDC players wanted to see their exposure to television coverage increase.

During the 1993 Embassy World Championship, the WDC players wore their new insignia on their sleeves. They were soon told to remove them by the tournament organisers, the BDO.[1] The WDC players decided that if they were not going to be recognised by the BDO they would no longer play in the Embassy Championships.[2]

During the tournament, the 16 WDC players released a statement saying that they would only play in the 1994 Embassy World Championship if it came under the auspices of the WDC, and that they only recognised the WDC as having the authority to sanction their participation in darts tournaments worldwide. Despite this statement, the BDO held firm and the WDC players instead held their own 1994 World Championship, now known as the Split in darts.

The second round saw several upset results including defeats of three former World Champions. Eric Bristow lost to Bob Anderson, while defending champion Phil Taylor lost to Kevin Spiolek. Dennis Priestley, the number one seed and tournament favourite, lost to Steve Beaton, despite Priestley having thrown a record average of 102.63 against Jocky Wilson in the first round. Other notable upsets during the tournament were Kevin Spiolek beating Kevin Kenny in the first round, Wayne Weening beating Rod Harrington in the first round, and Bobby George beating Mike Gregory in the quarter finals.

John Lowe went on to beat Alan Warriner in the final and claim this last ever unified world title in the sports of darts - the third world title of Lowe's career. With his previous victories in 1979 and 1987, he became the first player to win the World title in three different decades.

This was Raymond van Barneveld's second world championship appearance (debut 1991), and he landed the highest checkout of the tournament, 170.

Prize money

Total Prize fund was £128,500 (plus a £51,000 bonus for a nine-dart finish - not won)

  • Champion £30,000
  • Runner-up £15,000
  • Semi-finalists £7,500
  • Quarter-finalists £3,750
  • 2nd round losers £2,000
  • 1st round losers £1,800
  • Highest checkout £1,500
  • Non-qualifiers £400

Seeds
  1. Dennis Priestley
  2. Mike Gregory
  3. Phil Taylor
  4. Rod Harrington
  5. Alan Warriner
  6. John Lowe
  7. Keith Sullivan
  8. Bob Anderson

The Results
First Round (best of 5 sets) Second Round (best of 5 sets) Quarter-Finals (best of 7 sets) Semi-Finals (best of 9 sets) Final (best of 11 sets)
               
1 Dennis Priestley (102.63) 3
Jocky Wilson (96.09) 0
1 Dennis Priestley (93.27) 1
Steve Beaton (96.09) 3
  Steve Beaton (96.21) 3
Davy Richardson (88.71) 1
Steve Beaton (97.29) 4
8 Bob Anderson (91.20) 1
8 Bob Anderson (90.48) 3
Scott Coleman (90.90) 1
8 Bob Anderson (89.88) 3
Eric Bristow (85.41) 0
  Eric Bristow (86.67) 3
Per Skau (84.69) 1
Steve Beaton (91.86) 2
5 Alan Warriner (90.24) 5
5 Alan Warriner (98.46) 3
Mitchell Crooks (91.62) 0
5 Alan Warriner (95.49) 3
Ronnie Sharp (88.83) 1
  Ronnie Sharp (94.47) 3
Peter Hunt (82.44) 0
5 Alan Warriner (90.81) 4
Wayne Weening (86.85) 1
4 Rod Harrington (93.39) 2
Wayne Weening (86.64) 3
  Wayne Weening (93.93) 3
Albert Anstey (89.07) 0
  Albert Anstey (82.71) 3
Sean Downs (73.62) 0
5 Alan Warriner (82.32) 3
6 John Lowe (83.97) 6
2 Mike Gregory (94.77) 3
Jamie Harvey (86.91) 0
2 Mike Gregory (91.56) 3
Jann Hoffmann (86.55) 1
  Jann Hoffmann (81.99) 3
Bernd Hebecker (70.53) 0
2 Mike Gregory (93.39) 2
Bobby George (93.21) 4
7 Keith Sullivan (88.89) 1
Bobby George (86.55) 3
  Bobby George (91.26) 3
Martin Phillips (90.00) 0
  Martin Phillips (87.27) 3
Dave Kelly (83.34) 1
Bobby George (90.51) 3
6 John Lowe (92.10) 5
6 John Lowe (85.23) 3
Chris Johns (79.56) 1
6 John Lowe (86.97) 3
Raymond van Barneveld (89.43) 2
  Raymond van Barneveld (89.43) 3
Graham Miller (85.68) 2
6 John Lowe (89.25) 4
Kevin Spiolek (86.46) 3
3 Phil Taylor (91.59) 3
John Joe O'Shea (86.97) 1
3 Phil Taylor (87.93) 1
Kevin Spiolek (86.49) 3
  Kevin Spiolek (84.33) 3
Kevin Kenny (82.95) 1
gollark: You would expect a lot of people to do that if it was very easy.
gollark: Reduce the amount of (legally binding) rules?
gollark: So that gets to be the most *annoying*, but spaghet is the *worst*, then? Hmm.
gollark: https://discordapp.com/channels/379850656191741952/392746465375551489/627276672718340106
gollark: I thought that was nano[LAST PART OF WORD REDACTED FOR RULES REASONS] or something.

References
  1. Myweb.tiscali.co.uk Archived 3 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Theiceman.co.uk Archived 23 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
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