2004 PDC World Darts Championship

Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox individual darts tournament The 2004 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the 10th anniversary of the PDC version of the World Darts Championship. The tournament took place between 27 December 2003 and 4 January 2004 at the Circus Tavern, Purfleet, England.

An extra round was added, with the top 16 seeds given a bye to the third round, bringing the total players at the televised stages to 48. Ladbrokes, who sponsored the event initially for one year in 2003, decided to extend their deal and the prize fund was increased to £256,000. The Dutch television station, RTL 5 and Sky Sports both extended their deals with the PDC by three years. PDC chairman Barry Hearn announced that the tournament would be shown in Malaysia on pay-per-view.

Defending champion and number two seed, John Part suffered a surprise first-round defeat to Mark Dudbridge, his first match of the 2004 campaign.

The final became only the second ever (and first PDC) world final to go to a sudden-death leg. The first time it happened was when Phil Taylor beat Mike Gregory in the 1992 BDO final, Taylor was again involved and came out victorious against Kevin Painter. He came from 4–1 down to win his 11th world title.

The two losing semi-finalists came from different ends of darts experience. 56-year-old Bob Anderson, a World Champion 16 years earlier lost to Painter and Wayne Mardle was making his first PDC World Championship semi-final appearance. Mardle lost to Taylor for the second year running, following a third-round defeat as an unseeded player in 2003.

Seeds

There were sixteen seeds in the World Championship.

Seeded players
Enter in third round

1. Template:Flagicon Phil Taylor
2. Template:Flagicon John Part
3. Template:Flagicon Peter Manley
4. Template:Flagicon Roland Scholten
5. Template:Flagicon Colin Lloyd
6. Template:Flagicon Dennis Smith
7. Template:Flagicon Ronnie Baxter
8. Template:Flagicon Denis Ovens
9. Template:Flagicon Alan Warriner
10. Template:Flagicon Kevin Painter
11. Template:Flagicon Andy Jenkins
12. Template:Flagicon Wayne Mardle
13. Template:Flagicon Richie Burnett
14. Template:Flagicon Dave Askew
15. Template:Flagicon Jamie Harvey
16. Template:Flagicon Dennis Priestley

Unseeded players
Enter in third round

• Template:Flagicon John Lowe
• Template:Flagicon Alex Roy
• Template:Flagicon Peter Evison
• Template:Flagicon Keith Deller
• Template:Flagicon Bob Anderson
• Template:Flagicon Les Fitton
• Template:Flagicon Paul Williams
• Template:Flagicon Steve Beaton

Enter in second round

• Template:Flagicon Mark Holden
• Template:Flagicon Steve Brown
• Template:Flagicon Cliff Lazarenko
• Template:Flagicon Mark Walsh
• Template:Flagicon Lionel Sams
• Template:Flagicon Mick Manning
• Template:Flagicon Mark Dudbridge
• Template:Flagicon Simon Whatley

PDPA Qualifiers
Enter in first round

• Template:Flagicon Colin McGarry
• Template:Flagicon Ritchie Buckle
• Template:Flagicon Steve Maish
• Template:Flagicon Erik Clarys
• Template:Flagicon Alex MacKay
• Template:Flagicon Wayne Atwood
• Template:Flagicon Steve Smith
• Template:Flagicon Robbie Widdows

International Qualifiers
Enter in first round

• Template:Flagicon Tony Payne
• Template:Flagicon Dan Lauby
• Template:Flagicon Barry Jouannet
• Template:Flagicon Jan van der Rassel
• Template:Flagicon Rory Orvis
• Template:Flagicon Toru Sano
• Template:Flagicon Norman Madhoo
• Template:Flagicon Henry O'Neill

International qualifying tournaments

• Highest Placed North American in the Desert Classic: Template:Flagicon Tony Payne bt Ricky Villanueva Template:Flagicon
• American Darters Association: Template:Flagicon Dan Lauby bt Ray Carver Template:Flagicon
• Oceanic Masters: Template:Flagicon Barry Jouannet bt Mick Parker Template:Flagicon
• RTL Television Holland Playoff: Template:Flagicon Jan van der Rassel bt Bert Vlaardingerbroek Template:Flagicon
• Canada Winner: Template:Flagicon Rory Orvis bt Gerry Convery Template:Flagicon
• Japan Winner: Template:Flagicon Toru Sano bt Hiroshi Watanobe Template:Flagicon
• Caribbean Winner: Template:Flagicon Norman Madhoo bt Anthony Forde Template:Flagicon
• Ireland Winner: Template:Flagicon Henry O'Neill bt John MaGowan Template:Flagicon

Prize money

Position (num. of players)		Prize money (Total: £257,000)
Winner	(1)	£50,000
Runner-Up	(1)	£25,000
Semi-finalists	(2)	£12,500
Quarter-finalists	(4)	£7,500
Fourth round losers	(8)	£5,250
Third round losers	(16)	£3,250
Second round losers	(8)	£2,500
First round losers	(8)	£1,500
Highest finish bonus	(1)	£1,000

New format

To accommodate the change in the number of entries into the competition to 48, the format of the World Championship was again changed. 16 qualifiers would contest the first round, with the eight winners going through to the second round to meet players ranked between 25 and 32 in the PDC. The eight second round winners would go through to join the top 24 in the third round, where the tournament proceeded from the last 32 to the Final.

Results

Players in bold denote match winners.

Representation from different countries

This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including round 1&2.

	Template:Flagicon ENG	Template:Flagicon NED	Template:Flagicon SCO	Template:Flagicon AUS	Template:Flagicon WAL	Template:Flagicon NIR	Template:Flagicon BEL	Template:Flagicon CAN	Template:Flagicon USA	Template:Flagicon JPN	Template:Flagicon GUY	Total
Final	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Semis	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4
Quarters	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8
Round 4	16	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	16
Round 3	25	1	1	0	2	1	1	1	0	0	0	32
Round 2	11	0	1	0	1	1	1	0	1	0	0	16
Round 1	5	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	16
Total	32	2	2	1	2	1	1	2	3	1	1	48

External links

• Tournament format