World Grand Prix (darts)

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World Grand Prix
Tournament information
VenueMorningside Arena
LocationLeicester
CountryUnited Kingdom
Established1998
Organisation(s)PDC
FormatSets
"double in, double out"
Prize fund£450,000 (2019)
Month(s) PlayedOctober
Current champion(s)
Wales Jonny Clayton

The BoyleSports World Grand Prix is a PDC darts tournament traditionally held in Dublin, Ireland every October, but takes place in Leicester, England in 2021. Its original venue was the Casino Rooms in Rochester, Kent in 1998 and 1999, and then for one year only in 2000 at the Crosbie Cedars Hotel in Rosslare, County Wexford. In 2001, the tournament moved further north to the Citywest in Dublin. In 2009, the tournament moved from the Reception Hall at the main Citywest Hotel, to the newly completed bigger venue on site, the Citywest Hotel Convention Centre. In 2012, the tournament moved back to the Reception Hall for that year, before returning to the Convention Centre in 2013. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 tournament was held at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry, and in 2021, it was held at the Morningside Arena, Leicester. When the World Grand Prix was founded in 1998, it replaced the earlier World Pairs tournament which ran from 1995 to 1997.

The World Grand Prix was sponsored by bookmakers Paddy Power from 2001 to 2003, before Sky Bet took over in 2004. The subsidiary Sky Poker was the tournament's sponsor in 2008. In 2010, online gambling company Bodog became the event's title sponsor, while PartyPoker.com took over as the main sponsor in 2011. In 2016, Unibet took over as sponsor, with BoyleSports sponsoring the event in 2019.

Although he has dominated the event with eleven title wins, Phil Taylor has been knocked out of the World Grand Prix five times in the first round. In 2001, he lost 2–1 to qualifier Kevin Painter. in 2004, he was beaten 2–0 by Andy Callaby. in 2007, he lost 2–0 to Adrian Gray. in 2015, he was beaten 2–0 by Vincent van der Voort, and in 2016, he was beaten 2–1 by Steve West.

The current champion is Jonny Clayton of Wales, who defeated fellow Welshman and defending champion Gerwyn Price, by a margin of 5–1, in the 2021 final on 9 October 2021 to win his first World Grand Prix title.

Tournament format[]

The tournament is unusual in that it is the only televised event in which players must commence and finish each leg on a double (including the bullseye).

There have been several different formats for the tournament. The first event in 1998 was a straight knock-out tournament played in a setplay format with each set being contested over the best of three legs. The following year this changed to the best of five legs per set. Furthermore, a group stage was introduced in 1999, with there only being four seeded players for the event, all of whom reached the semi-finals. In 2000, the tournament reverted to being a straight knock-out and has remained so ever since.

The double-start format also makes landing a perfect nine-dart finish even more difficult, as it limits the number of combinations and guarantees that a player must finish on the bullseye (unless they start with one). There were two famous near misses in the first two years, the first with Phil Taylor in the 1998 final against Rod Harrington, when Taylor was distracted by loud commentary from Sid Waddell just before throwing the eighth dart (which Taylor hit) before he missed the bullseye; and the second in the 1999 semi final, when Harrington missed the bullseye against Taylor. The first nine-darter in Grand Prix history was eventually completed by Brendan Dolan in the 2011 semi-final against James Wade. In 2014, James Wade and Robert Thornton both hit perfect legs in the same match, the first time this happened in any televised event. On all three occasions, the leg started with a score of 160 (starting on double 20), followed by 180, followed by finishing 161 with treble 20, treble 17, and bullseye.

World Grand Prix Finals[]

Year Champion (average in final) Score Runner-up (average in final) Prize money Sponsor Venue
Total Champion Runner-up
1998 England Phil Taylor (94.61) 13–8 England Rod Harrington (86.64) £38,000 £9,000 £5,000 PDC Casino Rooms, Rochester
1999 England Phil Taylor (92.59) 6–1 England Shayne Burgess (81.26)
2000 England Phil Taylor (91.32) 6–1 England Shayne Burgess (81.48) £70,000 £15,000 £7,500 Crosbie Cedars Hotel, Rosslare
2001 England Alan Warriner (83.52) 8–2 Netherlands Roland Scholten (81.84) £78,000 Paddy Power Citywest Hotel, Dublin
Reception Hall
(2001–2008, 2012)
Citywest Hotel, Dublin
Convention Centre
(2009–2011, 2013–2019)
2002 England Phil Taylor (100.17) 7–3 Canada John Part (88.62) £70,000 £14,000 £7,000
2003 England Phil Taylor (94.80) 7–2 Canada John Part (83.25) £76,000 £15,000 £7,500
2004 England Colin Lloyd (85.29) 7–3 England Alan Warriner (77.91) £100,000 £20,000 £10,000 Sky Bet
2005 England Phil Taylor (90.74) 7–1 England Colin Lloyd (82.05)
2006 England Phil Taylor (88.24) 7–4 England Terry Jenkins (82.51) £130,000 £25,000 £12,500
2007 England James Wade (86.03) 6–3 England Terry Jenkins (84.58) £200,000 £50,000 £20,000
2008 England Phil Taylor (97.81) 6–2 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld (90.42) £250,000 £25,000 Sky Poker
2009 England Phil Taylor (97.07) 6–3 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld (86.62) £350,000 £100,000 £40,000 Sky Bet
2010 England James Wade (88.92) 6–3 England Adrian Lewis (89.33) Bodog
2011 England Phil Taylor (90.29) 6–3 Northern Ireland Brendan Dolan (84.68) PartyPoker.com
2012 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (87.53) 6–4 England Mervyn King (81.96)
2013 England Phil Taylor (97.67) 6–0 England Dave Chisnall (81.29)
2014 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (90.81) 5–3 England James Wade (89.26) £400,000 £45,000
2015 Scotland Robert Thornton (90.79) 5–4 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (96.79)
2016 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (100.29) 5–2 Scotland Gary Anderson (92.73) Unibet
2017 Northern Ireland Daryl Gurney (88.50) 5–4 Australia Simon Whitlock (83.53)
2018 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (88.85) 5–2 Scotland Peter Wright (91.61)
2019 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (94.74) 5–2 England Dave Chisnall (93.32) £450,000 £110,000 £50,000 BoyleSports
2020 Wales Gerwyn Price (88.19) 5–2 Netherlands Dirk van Duijvenbode (87.07) Ricoh Arena, Coventry[1]
2021 Wales Jonny Clayton (94.44) 5–1 Wales Gerwyn Price (92.47) Morningside Arena, Leicester

Records and statistics[]

As of 9 October 2021.

Total finalist appearances[]

Rank Player Nationality Won Runner-up Finals Appearances
1 Phil Taylor England England 11 0 11 19
2 Michael van Gerwen Netherlands Netherlands 5 1 6 11
3 James Wade England England 2 1 3 17
4 Colin Lloyd England England 1 1 2 14
Alan Warriner England England 1 1 2 9
Gerwyn Price Wales Wales 1 1 2 7
7 Robert Thornton Scotland Scotland 1 0 1 8
Daryl Gurney Northern Ireland Northern Ireland 1 0 1 8
Jonny Clayton Wales Wales 1 0 1 4
10 John Part Canada Canada 0 2 2 14
Raymond van Barneveld Netherlands Netherlands 0 2 2 13
Terry Jenkins England England 0 2 2 12
Dave Chisnall England England 0 2 2 10
Shayne Burgess England England 0 2 2 4
15 Adrian Lewis England England 0 1 1 15
Mervyn King England England 0 1 1 15
Brendan Dolan Northern Ireland Northern Ireland 0 1 1 12
Gary Anderson Scotland Scotland 0 1 1 12
Simon Whitlock Australia Australia 0 1 1 12
Peter Wright Scotland Scotland 0 1 1 10
Roland Scholten Netherlands Netherlands 0 1 1 9
Rod Harrington England England 0 1 1 5
Dirk van Duijvenbode Netherlands Netherlands 0 1 1 2

Nine-dart finishes[]

Three nine-darters have been thrown at the World Grand Prix. The first one was in 2011, the other two happened in the same game in 2014, notable as being the only televised match which has had nine-darters from both players.

Player Year (+ Round) Method (double-in double-out) Opponent Result
Northern Ireland Brendan Dolan 2011, Semi-Final D20, 2 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T17, bullseye England James Wade 5–2
England James Wade 2014, 2nd Round D20, 2 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T17, bullseye Scotland Robert Thornton 3–2
Scotland Robert Thornton 2014, 2nd Round D20, 2 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T17, bullseye England James Wade 2–3

High averages[]

An average over 100 in a match in the World Grand Prix has been achieved 20 times, of which Phil Taylor is responsible for 9.

Ten highest World Grand Prix one-match averages
Average Player Year (+ Round) Opponent Result
106.45 England Alan Warriner 2001, 1st Round England Andy Jenkins 2–0
104.86 Scotland Gary Anderson 2013, 1st Round Netherlands Jelle Klaasen 2–0
104.47 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 2013, 1st Round Canada John Part 2–0
103.09 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 2016, Quarter-Final Australia Simon Whitlock 3–1
103.02 England Phil Taylor 2011, Semi-Final Wales Richie Burnett 5–2
102.85 England Dave Chisnall 2020, 1st Round England Glen Durrant 2–0
102.48 England Phil Taylor 2010, 1st Round Northern Ireland Brendan Dolan 2–0
102.26 England Phil Taylor 2011, 1st Round Scotland Peter Wright 2–1
101.75 England Phil Taylor 2010, 2nd Round England Andy Smith 3–0
101.71 England Phil Taylor 1999, Quarter-Final England Peter Evison 3–0
Five highest losing averages
Average Player Year (+ Round) Opponent Result
97.78 England Dave Chisnall 2018, Quarter-Final Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 1–3
97.20 Scotland Gary Anderson 2015, 2nd Round England Ian White 1–3
97.03 England Phil Taylor 2015, 1st Round Netherlands Vincent van der Voort 0–2
96.84 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 2020, Quarter-Final Australia Simon Whitlock 0–3
96.79 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 2015, Final Scotland Robert Thornton 4–5
Different players with a 100+ match average – updated 03/10/21
Player Total Highest Av. Year (+ Round)
England Phil Taylor 9 103.02 2011, Semi-Final
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 4 104.47 2013, 1st Round
England Dave Chisnall 2 102.85 2020, 1st Round
Australia Simon Whitlock 2 101.12 2020, 1st Round
England Alan Warriner 1 106.45 2001, 1st Round
Scotland Gary Anderson 1 104.86 2013, 1st Round
Wales Gerwyn Price 1 100.82 2021, 1st Round
Five highest tournament averages
Average Player Year
99.46 Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 2016
99.23 England Phil Taylor 2010
98.62 England Phil Taylor 2009
98.50 England Phil Taylor 2008
98.22 England Phil Taylor 2012

World Team Championship[]

The World Team Championship event which preceded the introduction of this event was held between 1995 and 1997.[2]

Year Winners Score Runners Up Venue
England Eric Bristow
England Dennis Priestley
14–9 (legs) England Keith Deller
Scotland Jamie Harvey
Butlin's Wonder West World, Ayr
England Bob Anderson
England Phil Taylor
18–15 (legs) England Chris Mason
England Steve Raw
Willows Variety Centre, Salford
Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld
Netherlands Roland Scholten
18–15 (legs) Wales Richie Burnett
England Rod Harrington
Butlin's South Coast World, Bognor Regis

Media coverage[]

The World Grand Prix has been broadcast in the UK by Sky Sports since the first tournament.

References[]

  1. ^ Allen, Dave. "BoyleSports World Grand Prix moves to Coventry in 2020". Professional Darts Corporation. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  2. ^ "PDC World Pairs Winners". dartsdatabase.co.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2011.

External links[]

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