UK Open

The Ladbrokes UK Open is a ranking major darts tournament held annually at the Butlins Minehead Resort by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in England.[1] Often referred to as the FA Cup of darts, the UK Open replicates the abolition of seedings, elimination play, and fixtures determined via open draw.[2] One-hundred-and-sixty players compete in the multi-board event over eight-stages before the PDC’s Top 32 enter the tournament in the fourth round. The tournament has a prize fund of £450,000; the victors prize is £100,000.[3]

UK Open
Tournament information
VenueButlin's Minehead
LocationMinehead
CountryEngland
Established2003
Organisation(s)PDC
FormatLegs
Prize fund£450,000 (2020)
Month(s) PlayedJune (2003–2013)
March (2014–)
Current champion(s)
Michael van Gerwen

History

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), Gary Anderson (2012), Wes Newton (2013), Michael van Gerwen (2016 & 2020) and Jonny Clayton (2020) have also achieved a nine-dart leg (although Newton and Clayton's finishes were not televised live). The tournament had a different runner-up for the first 13 years.

Because of extreme weather conditions and fears for the safety of visiting fans the unprecedented decision was taken by the host venue Butlins to play the entire 2018 UK Open behind closed doors leaving the public only being able to watch the event though ITV4’s live coverage and the PDC live web feed.[4]

Format

Qualifying events for amateur players are organised by Rileys and held in various locations across the UK. 16 players qualify through these events.

The format is as follows (as of 2020):

  • First round: The 16 Rileys qualifiers, 8 Challenge Tour qualifiers, 8 Development Tour qualifiers and Tour Card holders ranked 97–128 in the PDC Order of Merit.
  • Second round: Players ranked 65–96 in the PDC Order of Merit join the 32 winners of the first round.
  • Third round: Players ranked 33–64 join the 32 winners of the second round.
  • Fourth round to final: Players ranked 1–32 in the PDC Order of Merit join the 32 winners of the third round.

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

UK Open Finals
Year[a] Champion (average in final) Score Runner-up (average in final) Prize money Sponsor Venue
Total Champion Runner-up
2003 Phil Taylor (98.03) 18–8 Shayne Burgess (91.36) £124,000 £30,000 £15,000 Sky Bet Reebok Stadium, Bolton
2004 Roland Scholten (89.49) 11–6 John Part (85.98) Budweiser
2005 Phil Taylor (96.80) 13–7 Mark Walsh (84.52)
2006 Raymond van Barneveld (91.51) 13–7 Barrie Bates (82.98)
2007 Raymond van Barneveld (94.99) 16–8 Vincent van der Voort (88.76) £150,000 Blue Square
2008 James Wade (94.65) 11–7 Gary Mawson (87.33) £178,000 £35,000
2009 Phil Taylor (100.81) 11–6 Colin Osborne (93.24) £200,000 £40,000 £20,000
2010 Phil Taylor (97.71) 11–5 Gary Anderson (92.41) Rileys Darts Zones
2011 James Wade (96.25) 11–8 Wes Newton (88.51) Speedy Hire
2012 Robert Thornton (95.44) 11–5 Phil Taylor (98.58)
2013 Phil Taylor (107.04) 11–4 Andy Hamilton (97.95)
2014 Adrian Lewis (109.13) 11–1 Terry Jenkins (93.15) £250,000 £50,000 £25,000 Coral Butlin's Resort, Minehead
2015 Michael van Gerwen (98.43) 11–5 Peter Wright (99.33) £300,000 £60,000 £30,000
2016 Michael van Gerwen (106.68) 11–4 Peter Wright (98.33)
2017 Peter Wright (100.55) 11–6 Gerwyn Price (97.78) £350,000 £70,000 £35,000
2018 Gary Anderson (95.71) 11–7 Corey Cadby (99.78)
2019 Nathan Aspinall (88.72) 11–5 Rob Cross (84.79) £450,000 £100,000 £40,000 Ladbrokes
2020 Michael van Gerwen (101.42) 11–9 Gerwyn Price (99.16)

Records and statistics
As of 8 March 2020.

Total finalist appearances
Rank Player Nationality Won Runner-up Finals
1 Phil Taylor England516
2 Michael van Gerwen Netherlands303
3 Raymond van Barneveld Netherlands202
James Wade England202
5 Peter Wright Scotland123
6 Gary Anderson Scotland112
7 Gregory Lister England101
Adrian Lewis England101
Roland Scholten Netherlands101
Robert Thornton Scotland101
11 Gerwyn Price Wales022
12 Barrie Bates Wales011
Shayne Burgess England011
Corey Cadby Australia011
Rob Cross England011
Andy Hamilton England011
Terry Jenkins England011
Gary Mawson United States011
Wes Newton England011
Colin Osborne England011
John Part Canada011
Vincent van der Voort Netherlands011
Mark Walsh England011
  • Active players are shown in bold
  • Only players who reached the final are included
  • In the event of identical records, players are sorted in alphabetical order by family name

Champions by country
Country Players Total First title Last title
 England 4 9 2003 2019
 Netherlands 3 6 2004 2020
 Scotland 3 3 2012 2018

Nine-dart finishes

Ten nine-darters have been thrown at the UK Open. The first one was in 2004, and nine of them have been televised. The one that wasn't was thrown by Wes Newton in 2013 against Adrian Lewis.

Player Year (+ Round) Method (double-in double-out) Opponent Result
Phil Taylor 2004, 4th Round 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Matt Chapman 8–2 (L)
Phil Taylor 2005, Semi-Final 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Roland Scholten 11–6 (L)
Phil Taylor 2007, 5th Round 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Wes Newton 11–5 (L)
Phil Taylor 2008, 4th Round 3 x T20; 2 x T20, T19; 2 x T20, D12 Jamie Harvey 9–1 (L)
Mervyn King 2010, 5th Round 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Gary Anderson 8–9 (L)
Gary Anderson 2012, 3rd Round 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Davey Dodds 9–3 (L)
Michael van Gerwen 2016, 4th Round 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Rob Cross 9–5 (L)
Jonny Clayton 2020, 6th Round 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Chris Dobey 10–8 (L)
Michael van Gerwen 2020, Semi-Finals 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T19, D12 Daryl Gurney 11–3 (L)

High averages
Ten highest UK Open one-match averages
Average Player Year (+ Round) Opponent Result
118.66 Phil Taylor 2010, Last 32 Kevin Painter 9–0
115.62 Phil Taylor 2009, Quarter-Final Mark Lawrence 10–0
115.51 Phil Taylor 2009, Last 32 Ken Mather 9–3
114.91 Michael van Gerwen 2015, Last 16 Kim Huybrechts 9–2
114.54 Phil Taylor 2008, Last 16 Wes Newton 9–3
113.05 Phil Taylor 2010, Semi-Final Denis Ovens 10–5
111.67 Phil Taylor 2015, Last 16 Vincent van der Voort 9–3
110.88 Peter Wright 2017, Quarter-Final Raymond van Barneveld 10–8
110.81 Michael van Gerwen 2020, Quarter-Final Rob Cross 10–4
110.72 Phil Taylor 2012, Last 16 Ronnie Baxter 9–4
Five highest tournament averages
Average Player Year
109.17 Phil Taylor 2015
107.38[5] Phil Taylor 2009
106.81 Phil Taylor 2013
106.43 Phil Taylor 2010
105.57 Michael van Gerwen 2015

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.

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.[6] From 2011 to 2013 it has been sponsored by Speedy Hire. In 2014 Coral took over sponsorship, it lasted until 2018, when its sister company, Ladbrokes took over for the 2019 tournament.

SponsorYears
Sky Bet2003
Budweiser2004–2006 [7]
Blue Square2007–2009 [8]
Rileys Darts Zones2010
Speedy Hire2011–2013
Coral2014–2018
Ladbrokes2019–present
gollark: Why have classes?
gollark: https://wiki.computercraft.cc/Network_security ← relevant
gollark: I prefer that.
gollark: I use CC because OC recipes are evil.
gollark: `git git --git git`

References
  1. "Ladbrokes UK Open". PDC. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
  2. "UK Open Darts 2020 schedule and draw confirmed". Metro. 2020-02-26. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
  3. "Draw and Schedule for 2020 UK Open confirmed". Darts News. 2020-02-24. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
  4. "PDC Coral UK Open at Butlin's in Minehead to be played with no fans due to 'unprecedented extreme weather'". Somerset Live. 2 March 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  5. "2009 UK Open Stats". Dartsdatabase. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  6. http://www.pdc.tv/page/UKOpen/0,,10180,00.html
  7. Bud on the oche
  8. Blue Square teams up with UK Open

Notes
  • a Each year is linked to an article about that particular event's draw.
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