1980 BDO World Darts Championship

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1980 Embassy World Darts Championship
Tournament information
Dates2–9 February 1980
Venue
Jollees Cabaret Club[1]
LocationStoke-on-Trent
Country England
Organisation(s)BDO
FormatSets
Final – best of 9
Prize fund£15,000
Winner's share£4,500
High checkout161 England Tony Sontag
161 Australia Terry O'Dea
Champion(s)
England Eric Bristow[2]
«1979 1981»

The 1980 Embassy World Darts Championship was the third year that the

Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke-on-Trent
.

Defending champion John Lowe, who had released a book The Lowe Profile just before the event suffered a surprise defeat 0–2 to Cliff Lazarenko saying afterwards "If you miss your doubles in this one, you must expect to go out." Eric Bristow was then immediately installed as favourite to win the event and would meet another flamboyant character of the game in the final – Bobby George.

George, who was not invited to the qualifiers the previous year appeared in a sequined shirt and when arriving on the stage was presented with a candelabra to complete a Liberace effect. He also made the early running in the final leading 1–0, 2–1 and 3–2. The first six sets all went to a deciding leg until Bristow won the seventh 3–1 to establish a 4–3 set lead. In the next set at 2–2 in legs, George had a golden opportunity to level the match and take it to a decider, but bust his score and nonchalantly threw his third dart into the board before putting his darts into his top pocket in anticipation of Bristow checking out to win the title. Bristow did so.[citation needed]

Bristow later said: "This was the final that changed the game of darts forever. Before that the audiences were always quite subdued, there was never really a buzz around the place, but when Bobby and I played in that final every member of the audience got involved. Everybody quite simply was going mad. It was a pit of noise. He had his fans, I had mine and both wanted to out-shout each other.[3]

Seeds

  1. England John Lowe
  2. England Eric Bristow
  3. England Tony Brown
  4. Wales Leighton Rees
  5. England Bobby George
  6. United States Nicky Virachkul
  7. Scotland Jocky Wilson
  8. Wales Ceri Morgan

Prize money

The prize fund was £15,000.

Champion: £4,500
Runner-Up: £2,000
3rd Place: £500
Semi-Finalists (2): £1,000
Quarter-Finalists (4): £500
Last 16 (8): £300
Last 24 (8): £200

Results

First round (best of 3 sets)
2–3 February
Second round (best of 3 sets)
4–6 February
Quarter-finals (best of 5 sets)
6–7 February
Semi-finals (best of 7 sets)
8 February
Final (best of 9 sets)
9 February
1
Tony Clark 78.45
2
7Scotland Jocky Wilson 78.900
7Scotland Jocky Wilson 82.112
United States Conrad Daniels 77.010England Doug McCarthy 79.140
2England Eric Bristow 86.224
England Doug McCarthy 74.252
3England Tony Brown 86.283
6United States Nicky Virachkul 76.560
Sweden Stefan Lord 78.391England Bill Lennard 82.802
England Bill Lennard 79.800
England Bill Lennard 75.572
3England Tony Brown 84.303
3England Tony Brown 82.502
Scotland Eric MacLean 81.721Australia Terry O'Dea 76.770
Australia Terry O'Dea 82.292

3rd place match (best of 3 sets) England Cliff Lazarenko 88.02 0 – 2 Tony Brown England 99.24

References

  1. ^ "The World Championship of Darts". Learnaboutdarts.com. Archived from the original on 18 December 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
  2. ^ Ralph Hickok (16 January 2010). "History – World Darts Champions". HickokSports.com. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
  3. .