1981 BDO World Darts Championship

The 1981 Embassy World Darts Championship was the fourth year that the British Darts Organisation had staged a world championship. The field was expanded from 24 to 32 players, the format which would remain for many years. For the third successive year the tournament was staged at Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke-on-Trent.

1981 Embassy World Darts Championship
Tournament information
Dates10–17 January 1981
VenueJollees Cabaret Club[1]
LocationStoke-on-Trent
Country England
Organisation(s)BDO
FormatSets
Final – best of 9
Prize fund£23,300
Winner's share£5,500
High checkout170 England Tony Brown
Champion(s)
England Eric Bristow[2]
«19801982»

Eric Bristow was back to defend his title and would face John Lowe the champion of two years previously in the final. The final was the best of nine sets, but there was a break scheduled after three sets where the third-fourth place play-off match would be held.

Lowe ran away with the first two sets without dropping a leg and took the first leg in the third set before Bristow finally got onto the scoreboard. The "Crafty Cockney" held on to take that third set to go into the break just one set behind. As in the previous year's final, Bristow edged ahead to lead 4–3 in sets and Lowe (as Bobby George did in 1980) had darts to take the match into a final set. However Lowe missed three attempts at double ten and Bristow took out double four to win the title for the second year running.

Seeds edit

Prize money edit

The prize fund was £22,800.

Champion: £5,500
Runner-Up: £2,500
3rd Place: £600
Semi-Finalists (2): £1,200
Quarter-Finalists (4): £750
Last 16 (8): £500
Last 32 (16): £300

There was also a 9-Dart Checkout prize of £52,000, along with a High Checkout prize of £500.

Results edit

Preliminary round edit

A best of three sets preliminary round match took place between Steve Brennan and Wayne Lock, as they were tied on the rankings.

PlayerScorePlayer
Wayne Lock 2–1 Steve Brennan
Gordon Allpress 2–0 Barry Atkinson

Last 32 edit

First round (best of 3 sets)
10–11 January
Second round (best of 3 sets)
12–13 January
Quarter-finals (best of 7 sets)
14–15 January
Semi-finals (best of 7 sets)
16 January
Final (best of 9 sets)
17 January
               
1 Eric Bristow 94.892
Terry O'Dea 82.290
1 Eric Bristow 84.962
16 Dave Whitcombe 79.230
16 Dave Whitcombe 88.022
Charlie Ellix 72.090
1 Eric Bristow 90.334
8 Nicky Virachkul 79.140
8 Nicky Virachkul 83.342
Tony Sontag 84.931
8 Nicky Virachkul 79.592
9 Rab Smith 81.480
9 Rab Smith 86.912
Q Wayne Lock 78.751
1 Eric Bristow 89.434
5 Cliff Lazarenko 83.461
5 Cliff Lazarenko 78.422
Alan Hudson 57.180
5 Cliff Lazarenko 95.162
Jerry Umberger 77.820
12 Len Heard 65.640
Jerry Umberger 80.522
5 Cliff Lazarenko 86.704
4 Bobby George 81.930
4 Bobby George 86.492
Alistair Forrester 75.270
4 Bobby George 80.762
Tony Clark 75.120
13 Bill Lennard 79.921
Tony Clark 81.572
1 Eric Bristow 85.955
3 John Lowe 81.363
2 Tony Brown 82.472
Paul Gosling 79.441
2 Tony Brown 79.052
15 Luc Marreel 76.680
15 Luc Marreel 74.582
Jan Larsen 65.521
2 Tony Brown 78.094
7 Jocky Wilson 73.262
7 Jocky Wilson 84.542
Gordon Allpress 76.831
7 Jocky Wilson 79.892
Kevin White 81.061
10 Stefan Lord 69.511
Kevin White 67.562
2 Tony Brown 88.501
3 John Lowe 90.394
6 Ceri Morgan 86.792
Doug McCarthy 86.011
6 Ceri Morgan 79.412
11 Leighton Rees 76.861
11 Leighton Rees 85.352
Tim Brown 83.130
6 Ceri Morgan 80.973
3 John Lowe 82.804
3 John Lowe 93.722
Angus Ross 79.110
3 John Lowe 77.492
14 Allan Hogg 71.611
14 Allan Hogg 70.592
Les Capewell 72.750

Third place match (best of 3 sets) Cliff Lazarenko (5) 75.06 2– 1 Tony Brown (2) 75.42

References edit

  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.