2008 World Matchplay (darts)

Stan James World Matchplay
Tournament information
Dates	20–26 July
Venue	Winter Gardens
Location	Blackpool
Country	England
Organisation(s)	PDC
Format	Legs
Prize fund	£300,000
Winners share	£60,000
High checkout	161 Matt Clark
Champion(s)
Phil Taylor
«2007 2009»

The 2008 Stan James World Matchplay was the 15th annual staging of the tournament by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament took place from Sunday 20 July to Saturday 26 July. It was staged at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. World number three, James Wade went into the competition as the defending champion and managed to reach the final for the third year in a row, but was defeated by top seed Phil Taylor 18-9 who won his ninth World Matchplay championship.

Prize fund

^[1]
A total of £300,000 was available for the players, divided based on the following performances:

Winner - £60,000
Runner-up - £30,000
Semi-finalists - £17,000
Quarter-finalists - £12,000
Second round losers - £8,000
First round losers - £4,000

Nine-dart jackpot - £10,000

Qualification

The qualification process for the World Matchplay differed this year. The top 16 in the PDC Order of the Merit after the 2008 UK Open qualified automatically as the 16 seeds. The other 16 places would be made up of the 16 highest ranked players (not already in the top 16) from the 2008 Players Championship Order of Merit - decided by the various Player Championship events taking place on the PDC Pro Tour from January 2008 - the cutoff point was the Las Vegas Players Championship just before the 2008 Las Vegas Desert Classic.^[2][3]

Thus, the participants were:

Draw

	1st Round,[4][5] 20–22 July, best of 19					2nd Round, 22–23 July, best of 25					Quarter Finals, 24 July, best of 31					Semi Finals, 25 July, best of 33					Final, 26 July, best of 35
	1	Phil Taylor 103.53	10
		Steve Beaton 97.91	6
						1	Phil Taylor 109.70	13
						16	Colin Osborne 97.08	5
	16	Colin Osborne 96.78	10
		Mervyn King 91.48	7
											1	Phil Taylor 95.78	16
												Kevin McDine 89.76	6
	8	Adrian Lewis 88.75	8
		Kevin McDine 96.02	10
							Kevin McDine 92.29	13
							Mark Walsh 95.02	9
	9	Colin Lloyd 91.37	6
		Mark Walsh 100.41	10
																1	Phil Taylor 105.59	17
																12	Dennis Priestley 96.56	8
	5	Terry Jenkins 92.48	10
		Alex Roy 91.32	6
						5	Terry Jenkins 93.10	11
						12	Dennis Priestley 94.60	13
	12	Dennis Priestley 91.13	10
		Adrian Gray 84.63	8
											12	Dennis Priestley 94.10	16
											13	Alan Tabern 90.65	14
	4	John Part 85.24	10
		Chris Mason 81.97	3
						4	John Part 90.26	7
						13	Alan Tabern 93.53	13
	13	Alan Tabern 95.75	10
		Vincent van der Voort 92.25	8
																					1	Phil Taylor 109.47	18
																					3	James Wade 102.58	9
	2	Raymond van Barneveld 88.41	11
		Mark Frost 82.17	9
						2	Raymond van Barneveld 90.99	13
							Tony Eccles 84.83	3
	15	Kevin Painter 86.57	8
		Tony Eccles 88.73	10
											2	Raymond van Barneveld 89.32	16
											10	Wayne Mardle 87.90	18
	7	Andy Hamilton 92.59	12
		Michael van Gerwen 93.22	14
							Michael van Gerwen 88.13	9
						10	Wayne Mardle 91.70	13
	10	Wayne Mardle 88.29	11
		Mark Dudbridge 88.28	9
																10	Wayne Mardle 88.92	5
																3	James Wade 102.73	17
	6	Roland Scholten 90.56	4
		Matt Clark 90.75	10
							Matt Clark 88.39	13
						11	Peter Manley 88.91	6
	11	Peter Manley 91.14	10
		Denis Ovens 90.59	4
												Matt Clark 93.27	12
											3	James Wade 97.85	16
	3	James Wade 96.31	10
		Wayne Jones 91.04	4
						3	James Wade 97.99	13
						14	Ronnie Baxter 93.06	7
	14	Ronnie Baxter 93.33	10
		Andy Smith 84.45	4

Scores after player's names are three-dart averages (total points scored divided by darts thrown and multiplied by 3)

All games had to be won by 2 clear legs (e.g. in Rd 1 there could not be a 10-9 scoreline it had to be 11-9 or 10-8)

Statistics

^[6][7]

Player	Eliminated	Played	Legs Won	Legs Lost	LWAT	100+	140+	180s	High Checkout	3-dart Average
Phil Taylor	Winner	5	74	34	30	143	92	36	160	104.81
James Wade	Final	5	65	46	28	120	95	42	157	99.49
Wayne Mardle	Semi-finals	4	47	51	16	133	65	12	155	89.20
Dennis Priestley	Semi-finals	4	47	50	18	131	62	13	155	94.10
Raymond van Barneveld	Quarter-finals	3	40	30	16	91	44	6	138	89.57
Kevin McDine	Quarter-finals	3	29	33	9	87	35	15	160	92.69
Matt Clark	Quarter-finals	3	35	26	11	75	34	9	161	90.80
Alan Tabern	Quarter-finals	3	37	31	14	98	52	14	120	93.31
Mark Walsh	Second round	2	19	19	7	60	26	12	96	97.72
Colin Osborne	Second round	2	15	20	5	44	19	10	110	96.93
Ronnie Baxter	Second round	2	17	17	7	44	23	4	102	93.20
Terry Jenkins	Second round	2	21	19	9	52	30	9	160	92.79
Michael van Gerwen	Second round	2	23	25	9	64	29	8	112	90.68
Peter Manley	Second round	2	16	17	5	48	20	8	156	90.03
John Part	Second round	2	17	16	6	26	24	7	120	87.75
Tony Eccles	Second round	2	13	21	4	54	11	4	157	86.78
Kevin Painter	First round	1	8	10	3	26	10	2	76	86.57
Adrian Gray	First round	1	8	10	3	23	7	3	81	84.63
Andy Smith	First round	1	4	10	1	22	5	2	80	84.45
Mark Frost	First round	1	9	11	5	29	13	2	102	82.17
Steve Beaton	First round	1	6	10	0	19	14	4	152	97.91
Adrian Lewis	First round	1	8	10	3	17	14	4	116	88.75
Mark Dudbridge	First round	1	9	11	2	23	18	5	160	88.28
Andy Hamilton	First round	1	12	14	5	35	18	4	140	92.59
Vincent van der Voort	First round	1	8	10	3	18	15	5	96	92.25
Mervyn King	First round	1	7	10	1	22	13	1	116	91.49
Colin Lloyd	First round	1	6	10	2	22	5	2	127	91.37
Alex Roy	First round	1	6	10	3	27	13	2	116	91.32
Wayne Jones	First round	1	4	10	1	18	12	1	116	91.04
Denis Ovens	First round	1	4	10	1	22	10	3	110	90.59
Roland Scholten	First round	1	4	10	0	17	6	1	74	90.56
Chris Mason	First round	1	3	10	1	26	3	0	115	81.97

Results

Round 1, Sunday 20 July

Evening Session

• Mark Walsh 10-6 Colin Lloyd
• Wayne Mardle 11-9 Mark Dudbridge
• Colin Osbourne 10-7 Mervyn King

Round 1, Monday 21 July

Afternoon Session

• Dennis Priestley 10-8 Adrian Gray
• Kevin Painter 8-10 Tony Eccles
• Roland Scholten 4-10 Matt Clark
• Terry Jenkins 10-6 Alex Roy

Evening Session

• John Part 10-3 Chris Mason
• Kevin McDine 10-8 Adrian Lewis
• Phil Taylor 10-6 Steve Beaton
• Raymond van Barneveld 11-9 Mark Frost

Round 1 and 2, Tuesday 22 July

Andy Hamilton throws against Michael van Gerwen in their epic first round match.

Afternoon Session

• Ronnie Baxter 10-4 Andy Smith
• Alan Tabern 10-8 Vincent van der Voort
• Andy Hamilton 12-14 Michael van Gerwen
• Peter Manley 10-4 Dennis Ovens

Evening Session

• James Wade 10-4 Wayne Jones

Round 2

• Phil Taylor 13-5 Colin Osborne
• Kevin McDine 13-9 Mark Walsh

Round 2, Wednesday 23 July

Afternoon Session

• Terry Jenkins 11-13 Dennis Priestley
• John Part 7-13 Alan Tabern
• Michael van Gerwen 9-13 Wayne Mardle

Evening Session

• Matt Clark 13-6 Peter Manley
• Raymond van Barneveld 13-3 Tony Eccles
• James Wade 13-7 Ronnie Baxter

Quarter Finals, Thursday 24 July

Afternoon Session

• Dennis Priestley 16-14 Alan Tabern
• Matt Clark 12-16 James Wade

Evening Session

• Raymond van Barneveld 16-18 Wayne Mardle
• Phil Taylor 16-6 Kevin McDine

Semi Finals, Friday 25 July

• Phil Taylor 17-8 Dennis Priestley
• Wayne Mardle 5-17 James Wade

Final, Saturday 26 July

• Phil Taylor 18-9 James Wade

The Aftermath

Phil Taylor

Taylor was reduced to tears upon winning the second most prestigious title in the PDC for the ninth time. He could not speak to interviewers and simply stood on the stage with a tearful look in his eyes. Later on, Taylor explained that he was overwhelmed by all of the support that he'd received, he also explained how he once thought he was never going to win the title ever again.

James Wade

Wade took his loss in good spirit. Despite not winning the tournament (as he did in 2007), he has now almost caught up with Raymond van Barneveld in the world rankings and is only £4000 behind him.

References