UK Open (darts)

The Blue Square UK Open is an innovative PDC darts tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, 128 players compete in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion.

It has earned the nickname, the "FA Cup of darts" due to the fact that the minnows can come up against the big boys. There are also no seedings for the top players which means the top players can be drawn against each other at any stage. Just like the FA Cup, a random draw takes place after each round to determine the matches for the next round. However, a slight change will be introduced from 2007 where a tournament bracket is introduced from the quarter-final stage to prevent players being forced into playing long back-to-back matches.

The tournament is well known for having a huge outsider in the final every year except 2004 (Scholten v Part).

Since 2003, the UK Open has been broadcast in June each year from the Reebok Stadium, in Bolton. Phil Taylor beat Shayne Burgess in the inaugural final. Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld won the tournament in 2006, the first ever ranking tournament with the PDC in which he has played. He knocked out 13-times World Champion Phil Taylor 11-10 en route to the final where he beat Barrie Bates 13-7. He also successfully defended the title in 2007, again beating Taylor en-route.

Taylor has achieved the perfect nine-dart finish four times in the UK Open in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008.

ponsors

The inaugural event in 2003 was sponsored by Sky Bet, from 2004 Budweiser became the main sponsor. After Budweiser's three-year sponsorship ended in 2006, bookmakers Blue Square have taken over as title sponsor in 2007.

Sky Bet 2003
Budweiser 2004 to 2006 [ [http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/152703/bud-on-the-pdc-oche Bud on the oche] ]
Blue Square 2007 to 2009 [ [http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/161485/blue-square-teams-up-with-uk-darts-open Blue Square teams up with UK Open] ]

Final Results

Format

Qualifying events are held at Punch Taverns pubs across the UK - winners from each pub event progress to one of four Regional Finals, to be staged in their relevant area. Players who reach the final eight in the Regional Finals will qualify for the televised stages of the UK Open in Bolton.

In addition there are eight UK Open Regional Finals for the "professional" players. All events are open to all darts players on payment of an entry fee - which means that players from both the PDC and BDO are eligible to enter. Players who enter through the Punch Taverns Qualifying Round are not eligible to play in the regional qualifying events and vice-versa.

The results of the eight qualifiers are then collated into an Order of Merit table (Winner £4000; Runner-up £2000; 3-4 £1000; 5-8 £500; 9-16 £250; 17-32 £100; 33-64 £50). The top 96 players in this Order of Merit join the 32 Punch Taverns qualifiers at the televised stages in Bolton.

The 2008 format is as follows:

*Preliminary & First Round (Thursday, best of 11 legs): Holsten pub qualifiers start the tournament here.
*Second Round (Thursday, best of 11 legs)
*Third Round (Friday, best of 17 legs): Top 32 in UK Open Order of Merit join the winners from Thursday; from this point it is straight knockout.
*Fourth Round (Saturday, best of 21 legs)
*Fifth Round (Saturday, best of 21 legs)
*Quarter Finals (Sunday, best of 21 legs)
*Semi Finals (Sunday, best of 21 legs)
*Final (Sunday 7pm, best of 31 legs)

Regional Final Results

There are eight regional Open events staged each year, where the prize money won is collated into a UK Open Order of Merit table which determines 128 qualifiers (96 up to 2006) for the UK Open finals in Bolton. The total number of regional final tournament wins (after 2008 UK Open) is:

9 Phil Taylor
5 Raymond van Barneveld
4 Peter Manley
3 James Wade
3 Colin Lloyd
2 Mark Dudbridge
2 Kevin Painter
2 Andy Smith
2 Alex Roy
1 Andy Jenkins
1 John Part
1 Ronnie Baxter
1 Alan Caves
1 Steve Maish
1 Mark Robinson
1 Wayne Mardle
1 Steve Hine
1 Denis Ovens
1 Jimmy Mann
1 Mark Walsh
1 Adrian Lewis
1 Chris Mason
1 Dennis Priestley
1 Andy Hamilton
1 Colin Osborne
1 Alan Tabern:"for full list of finals see PDC Pro Tour"

References

External links

* [http://www.planetdarts.tv/page/UKOpen/0,,10180,00.html UK Open page on the PDC website]