The 2008 PDC World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2008 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship) was the fifteenth World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event took place between 17 December 2007 and 1 January 2008 at the Alexandra Palace, London, England.
John Part won his third World Championship, beating the qualifier Kirk Shepherd 7âÂÂ2 in the final. He joined Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Eric Bristow, and John Lowe as the only people to have won more than two world titles, although they have since been joined by Martin Adams, Michael van Gerwen and Glen Durrant. He is also one of seven players to have won the PDC World Darts Championship more than once, along with Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Michael van Gerwen and Peter Wright and Luke Littler. In addition, he became the first player to have won World Championships in three different venues; the Lakeside, the Circus Tavern and the Alexandra Palace.
Raymond van Barneveld was the defending champion having won the PDC World Championship at the first attempt in an epic final against Taylor in 2007. He was knocked out in the third round with a 4âÂÂ2 loss to Kevin Painter.
Taylor failed to reach the final of the competition for the first time in PDC World Championship history, after losing 5âÂÂ4 to Wayne Mardle in the quarter-finals.
In addition to several highly ranked players failing to reach the latter stages of the competition, an argument could be made that this tournament had, statistically, the lowest standard of play from any PDC World Championship this millennium. A distinct lack of quality was exhibited across the draw: no single player achieved a 3-dart average of over 100 in any match in the entire tournament, the highest being John Part's average of 99.06 in his second-round match against Mensur Suljovic; additionally, there were only six 3-dart averages of 96 or higher in any match in the entire tournament (see Draw below). Kirk Shepherd, meanwhile, incredibly finished runner-up in the tournament without averaging over 90 in any match he played in the tournament - he is the only player to achieve this feat in any PDC World Championship event this millennium. Shepherd was also the first player making his PDC World Championship debut to reach the final, without having played in a BDO World Championship.
After being staged at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet for 14 years, the tournament moved to the Alexandra Palace in London. The championships had been considered to have outgrown the Circus Tavern whose capacity of 800âÂÂ1,000 spectators was considerably smaller than some Holsten Premier League darts events in 2007 which saw crowds reaching 5,000. The Alexandra Palace was the venue of the News of the World Darts Championship between 1963 and 1977 and boasts a capacity for 2008 of 2,500.
The televised stages featured 68 players. The top 32 players in the PDC Order of Merit on 12 November 2007 received an automatic place in the World Championship. They were joined by 16 PDPA members and 20 international qualifiers determined by the PDC and PDPA.
The 16 PDPA members were made up from the top eight players (who had not already qualified) in the PDC Pro Tour Events during 2007: Jelle Klaasen, Mark Walsh, Tony Eccles, Michael van Gerwen, Steve Brown, Dave Askew, Jason Clark and Matt Clark.
The final eight qualifiers were determined at a PDPA Qualifying event which was held on 17 November 2007 in Wolverhampton â prior to the Grand Slam of Darts tournament. The successful players were Steve Maish, Jan van der Rassel, Colin Monk, Steve Evans, Jamie Caven, Steve Hine, Kirk Shepherd and Jason Barry. Former world champions John Lowe, Eric Bristow, Keith Deller and Richie Burnett all played in the qualifying rounds but failed to reach the televised stages.
Order of Merit
Pro Tour
PDPA qualifiers
PDC North American Pro Tour<br />Order of Merit<br />First round qualifiers
Dutch/Belgian DDF<br />Order of Merit<br />First round qualifiers
German Darts Corporation<br />Order of Merit<br />First round qualifiers
Danish Order of Merit<br />First round qualifiers
Australia Order of Merit<br />First round qualifiers
Oceanic Masters winner<br />First round qualifiers
South African Open winner<br />First round qualifiers
International qualifiers<br />Preliminary round qualifiers
The 2008 World Championship featured a prize fund of ã589,000. The prize money for earlier round losers was increased, whilst the winner and runner-up prize money was unchanged.
(best of nine legs, played Wednesday 19 December and Thursday 20 December)
<small><span style="color:dimgray;">Scores after player's names are three-dart averages (total points scored divided by darts thrown and multiplied by 3)</span></small>
This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round.
Day five, Friday 21 December
The tournament went into for the Christmas period.
Third round (Last 16)
Raymond van Barneveld's reign as PDC World Championship was ended by Kevin Painter in a thrilling match which Painter finished off with a ten-dart leg to clinch the match 4âÂÂ2. Painter hit seven consecutive treble 20s, en route to a possible nine dart leg before missing a treble 19 before completing a remarkable ten darter to go through to the quarter-finals.
Earlier, James Wade overcame flu and Mark Dudbridge 4âÂÂ2 to go through to his first World quarter-final and Kirk Shepherd defeated Barrie Bates 4âÂÂ2 to be the surprise quarter-finalist. Peter Manley and John Part both had comfortable wins in their last 16 matches.
The talking point of the day may have been the Adrian Lewis v Tony Eccles clash. Eccles started in sensational fashion winning the first eight legs, but couldn't close out the third set. He missed two darts at a double for a 3âÂÂ0 sets lead and then Lewis started a fightback winning the next three sets to lead 3âÂÂ2. Eccles fought back himself to level the match, but controversy came in the final set when the scores were level at 2 legs each. Lewis took an unscheduled comfort break just minutes after a scheduled one and when he came back he found his rhythm to win the next two legs and make the quarter-finals.
For the first time in the 15-year history of the event, Phil Taylor failed to make it to the final after losing to Wayne Mardle. Taylor took an early 3âÂÂ0 lead, but after winning a set Mardle's confidence increased and with the crowd behind him brought it back to 3âÂÂ3. With the sets tied 4âÂÂ4 the legs went with throw until 4âÂÂ4 when Mardle broke Taylor with tops after Taylor missed double sixteen when the dart went the wrong side of the wire. Wayne closed out the match on his own darts with 140 and double 18 to win the final set 6âÂÂ4 and a 5âÂÂ4 win. Mardle immediately broke down into tears after the win. After the match Mardle said "it's not being in the semis that's important... it's beating that guy there (Taylor); he didn't play well, but I still had to play at my best to beat him"
Taylor said "When I was 3 sets to nil up, I thought I'm going to beat him 5âÂÂ0... If he gets his game together now he's got the biggest chance of his life to win it".
World Matchplay champion James Wade also went out in the quarter-finals to two-time former World Champion John Part. It was a close match, but Part always stayed in front after establishing a 2âÂÂ0 set lead. Wade did fight back from 1âÂÂ3 to level the match.
Kirk Shepherd continued his amazing run and for the third time in the tournament survived his opponent having darts to win the match. Peter Manley had two darts to win the final set 3âÂÂ0, but Shepherd came back to win the final set 4âÂÂ2. After sharing the first four sets, Kevin Painter beat Adrian Lewis 5âÂÂ2.
Kirk Shepherd's sensational run in the tournament continued as he beat Wayne Mardle in the semi-final to reach the final. Shepherd, the 21-year-old qualifier built up a 3âÂÂ1 set lead and missed five darts to go 4âÂÂ1 up only to see Mardle come back to take the lead 4âÂÂ3. Mardle, who had beaten Phil Taylor the previous night in the quarter-finals looked to be on his way to his first world final before Shepherd fought back again to take the next three sets and become the first qualifier to reach the PDC World final.
The other semi-final was a more clinical performance as John Part returned to the final always having the edge over 2004 finalist Kevin Painter. The fourth set was potential decisive as Painter missed darts to take a 2âÂÂ0 leg lead. Part then took out the next two legs and a 13-darter in the fourth leg gave him a 3âÂÂ1 set lead. Painter missed a dart at bullseye to bring the score back to 2âÂÂ3, leaving Part a 44 finish to go 4âÂÂ1 up â then also missed a chance to take the sixth set. Part took the match with a classy 130 finish for a 6âÂÂ2 win.
John Part became World Champion for the third time with a ruthless 7âÂÂ2 victory over qualifier Kirk Shepherd. Shepherd had beaten world number four Terry Jenkins, three time world finalist Peter Manley and Phil Taylor's conqueror Wayne Mardle to become the first qualifier to reach the PDC World final â but he had no answer to Part's experience in the final. The early stages of the match were close with both of the first two sets going down to a deciding leg. Part just edged the first set and in the deciding leg of the second started with 140, 180 and a 15-dart leg for a 2âÂÂ0 lead. Part then ran off the next six legs to find himself 4âÂÂ0 in front and missed a bullseye for a 5âÂÂ0 lead before Shepherd took his first set. The sixth set again went to last leg with Part re-establishing a four set lead but Shepherd continued to battle away and took the seventh set with a brilliant 160 finish. Part opened the eighth set with a 139 finish, then Shepherd hit an 88 to level it before checkouts of 52 and 80 from Part took him one set away from victory at 6âÂÂ2. The Canadian closed out victory in the ninth set with a double ten in the fifth leg.