World Grand Prix (darts)

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World Grand Prix
Tournament information
Venue	Morningside Arena
Location	Leicester
Country	United Kingdom
Established	1998
Organisation(s)	PDC
Format	Sets "double in, double out"
Prize fund	£450,000 (2019)
Month(s) Played	October
Current champion(s)
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	Phil Taylor (94.61)	13–8	Rod Harrington (86.64)	£38,000	£9,000	£5,000	PDC	Casino Rooms, Rochester
1999	Phil Taylor (92.59)	6–1	Shayne Burgess (81.26)
2000	Phil Taylor (91.32)	6–1	Shayne Burgess (81.48)	£70,000	£15,000	£7,500		Crosbie Cedars Hotel, Rosslare
2001	Alan Warriner (83.52)	8–2	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	Phil Taylor (100.17)	7–3	John Part (88.62)	£70,000	£14,000	£7,000
2003	Phil Taylor (94.80)	7–2	John Part (83.25)	£76,000	£15,000	£7,500
2004	Colin Lloyd (85.29)	7–3	Alan Warriner (77.91)	£100,000	£20,000	£10,000	Sky Bet
2005	Phil Taylor (90.74)	7–1	Colin Lloyd (82.05)
2006	Phil Taylor (88.24)	7–4	Terry Jenkins (82.51)	£130,000	£25,000	£12,500
2007	James Wade (86.03)	6–3	Terry Jenkins (84.58)	£200,000	£50,000	£20,000
2008	Phil Taylor (97.81)	6–2	Raymond van Barneveld (90.42)	£250,000		£25,000	Sky Poker
2009	Phil Taylor (97.07)	6–3	Raymond van Barneveld (86.62)	£350,000	£100,000	£40,000	Sky Bet
2010	James Wade (88.92)	6–3	Adrian Lewis (89.33)				Bodog
2011	Phil Taylor (90.29)	6–3	Brendan Dolan (84.68)				PartyPoker.com
2012	Michael van Gerwen (87.53)	6–4	Mervyn King (81.96)
2013	Phil Taylor (97.67)	6–0	Dave Chisnall (81.29)
2014	Michael van Gerwen (90.81)	5–3	James Wade (89.26)	£400,000	£45,000
2015	Robert Thornton (90.79)	5–4	Michael van Gerwen (96.79)
2016	Michael van Gerwen (100.29)	5–2	Gary Anderson (92.73)			Unibet
2017	Daryl Gurney (88.50)	5–4	Simon Whitlock (83.53)
2018	Michael van Gerwen (88.85)	5–2	Peter Wright (91.61)
2019	Michael van Gerwen (94.74)	5–2	Dave Chisnall (93.32)	£450,000	£110,000	£50,000	BoyleSports
2020	Gerwyn Price (88.19)	5–2	Dirk van Duijvenbode (87.07)					Ricoh Arena, Coventry[1]
2021	Jonny Clayton (94.44)	5–1	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	11	0	11	19
2	Michael van Gerwen	Netherlands	5	1	6	11
3	James Wade	England	2	1	3	17
4	Colin Lloyd	England	1	1	2	14
	Alan Warriner	England	1	1	2	9
	Gerwyn Price	Wales	1	1	2	7
7	Robert Thornton	Scotland	1	0	1	8
	Daryl Gurney	Northern Ireland	1	0	1	8
	Jonny Clayton	Wales	1	0	1	4
10	John Part	Canada	0	2	2	14
	Raymond van Barneveld	Netherlands	0	2	2	13
	Terry Jenkins	England	0	2	2	12
	Dave Chisnall	England	0	2	2	10
	Shayne Burgess	England	0	2	2	4
15	Adrian Lewis	England	0	1	1	15
	Mervyn King	England	0	1	1	15
	Brendan Dolan	Northern Ireland	0	1	1	12
	Gary Anderson	Scotland	0	1	1	12
	Simon Whitlock	Australia	0	1	1	12
	Peter Wright	Scotland	0	1	1	10
	Roland Scholten	Netherlands	0	1	1	9
	Rod Harrington	England	0	1	1	5
	Dirk van Duijvenbode	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
Brendan Dolan	2011, Semi-Final	D20, 2 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T17, bullseye	James Wade	5–2
James Wade	2014, 2nd Round	D20, 2 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T17, bullseye	Robert Thornton	3–2
Robert Thornton	2014, 2nd Round	D20, 2 x T20; 3 x T20; T20, T17, bullseye	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	Alan Warriner	2001, 1st Round	Andy Jenkins	2–0
104.86	Gary Anderson	2013, 1st Round	Jelle Klaasen	2–0
104.47	Michael van Gerwen	2013, 1st Round	John Part	2–0
103.09	Michael van Gerwen	2016, Quarter-Final	Simon Whitlock	3–1
103.02	Phil Taylor	2011, Semi-Final	Richie Burnett	5–2
102.85	Dave Chisnall	2020, 1st Round	Glen Durrant	2–0
102.48	Phil Taylor	2010, 1st Round	Brendan Dolan	2–0
102.26	Phil Taylor	2011, 1st Round	Peter Wright	2–1
101.75	Phil Taylor	2010, 2nd Round	Andy Smith	3–0
101.71	Phil Taylor	1999, Quarter-Final	Peter Evison	3–0

Five highest losing averages
Average	Player	Year (+ Round)	Opponent	Result
97.78	Dave Chisnall	2018, Quarter-Final	Michael van Gerwen	1–3
97.20	Gary Anderson	2015, 2nd Round	Ian White	1–3
97.03	Phil Taylor	2015, 1st Round	Vincent van der Voort	0–2
96.84	Michael van Gerwen	2020, Quarter-Final	Simon Whitlock	0–3
96.79	Michael van Gerwen	2015, Final	Robert Thornton	4–5

Different players with a 100+ match average – updated 03/10/21
Player	Total	Highest Av.	Year (+ Round)
Phil Taylor	9	103.02	2011, Semi-Final
Michael van Gerwen	4	104.47	2013, 1st Round
Dave Chisnall	2	102.85	2020, 1st Round
Simon Whitlock	2	101.12	2020, 1st Round
Alan Warriner	1	106.45	2001, 1st Round
Gary Anderson	1	104.86	2013, 1st Round
Gerwyn Price	1	100.82	2021, 1st Round

Five highest tournament averages
Average	Player	Year
99.46	Michael van Gerwen	2016
99.23	Phil Taylor	2010
98.62	Phil Taylor	2009
98.50	Phil Taylor	2008
98.22	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
	Eric Bristow Dennis Priestley	14–9 (legs)	Keith Deller Jamie Harvey	Butlin's Wonder West World, Ayr
	Bob Anderson Phil Taylor	18–15 (legs)	Chris Mason Steve Raw	Willows Variety Centre, Salford
	Raymond van Barneveld Roland Scholten	18–15 (legs)	Richie Burnett 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[]

External links[]

• World Grand Prix page on the PDC website
• World Grand Prix on Darts Database
• World Grand Prix on Mastercaller