2003 PDC World Darts Championship

Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox individual darts tournament The 2003 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the tenth World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since its split from the British Darts Organisation in 1993. The tournament took place between 27 December 2002 and 5 January 2003 at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, England. Ladbrokes (who sponsored the 1996 event with their Vernon's brand) took over sponsorship of the event from Skol.

The field at the televised stages was expanded for the first time since 1999, adding an extra qualifying round that increased the total number of players from 32 to 40. John Part defeated the defending champion and number one seed, Phil Taylor, in the final. This ended Taylor's streak of eight successive World titles and 44 successive victories at the Circus Tavern.

This was Part's second world championship, having also won the 1994 BDO World Championship (the first tournament after the split). As Raymond van Barneveld won the rival BDO World Darts Championship the same year, this was the first time that both versions of the world title were held by a player from outside the British Isles.

Qualifying criteria

The qualifying criteria for the World Championship were as follows:

• Top 32 of the PDC Order of Merit (as of 1 December 2002),
• Four PDPA Qualifiers (Al Hedman, Lee Palfreyman, Mark Robinson, Dave Smith),
• Australian Qualifier (Simon Whitlock),
• Dutch Qualifier (Arjan Moen),
• USA Qualifier (Ray Carver)
• Nine-dart challenge sponsored by The Sunday People (David Platt)

Prize money

Position (num. of players)		Prize money (Total: £237,000)
Winner	(1)	£50,000
Runner-Up	(1)	£25,000
Semi-finalists	(2)	£12,500
Quarter-finalists	(4)	£7,000
Third round losers	(8)	£5,000
Second round losers	(16)	£3,000
First round losers	(8)	£2,500
Highest finish bonus	(1)	£1,000

• Nine-dart finish: A diamond, worth a six figure sum, will be mounted in the bulls eye of a championship dartboard as a unique prize (not won).

Results

First round

All matches are the best of 7 sets.

Av.	Player	Score	Player	Av.
80.11	Mark Holden Template:Flagicon	4–3	Template:Flagicon Dave Smith	81.65
83.11	Bob Anderson Template:Flagicon	4–0	Template:Flagicon Al Hedman	76.36
81.58	Reg Harding Template:Flagicon	4–3	Template:Flagicon Mark Robinson	83.67
86.75	Mick Manning Template:Flagicon	4–2	Template:Flagicon Lee Palfreyman	81.13
85.21	Simon Whitlock Template:Flagicon	4–2	Template:Flagicon Paul Williams	84.88
87.84	Steve Brown Template:Flagicon	4–2	Template:Flagicon David Platt	88.05
92.99	Wayne Mardle Template:Flagicon	4–0	Template:Flagicon Ray Carver	82.72
89.85	Shayne Burgess Template:Flagicon	4–2	Template:Flagicon Arjan Moen	84.07

Representation from different countries

This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the 1st round.

	Template:Flagicon ENG	Template:Flagicon NED	Template:Flagicon AUS	Template:Flagicon SCO	Template:Flagicon WAL	Template:Flagicon CAN	Template:Flagicon USA	Template:Flagicon JAM	Total
Final	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2
Semis	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	4
Quarters	5	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	8
Round 3	11	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	16
Round 2	26	1	1	1	1	1	1	0	32
Round 1	11	1	1	0	0	0	2	1	16
Total	30	2	2	1	1	1	2	1	40