- World Grand Prix (darts)
-
World Grand Prix Tournament information Venue Citywest Hotel Location Dublin Country Republic of Ireland Established 1998 Organisation(s) PDC Format Sets
"double in, double out"Prize Fund £350,000 (2009) Month(s) Played October Current champion(s) 
Phil TaylorThe World Grand Prix is a PDC darts tournament held in Dublin each October. Its original venue was the Casino Rooms in Rochester, Kent in 1998 and 1999 and then for one year only in 2000 at the Crosbie Cedars Hotel in Rosslare, County Wexford. In 2001 the tournament moved further north to its current home at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin. The event replaced the earlier World Pairs tournament which ran from 1995 to 1997.
The Grand Prix was originally sponsored by bookmakers Paddy Power before Sky Bet took over in 2004. The subsidiary Sky Poker followed as the tournament's sponsor in 2008 and 2009. In 2010, online gambling company Bodog became the event's title sponsor and in 2011 PartyPoker.com took over as sponsor.
Although he has dominated the event with ten title wins, Phil Taylor has been knocked out of the World Grand Prix three times in the first round. In 2001, he lost 2-1 to qualifier Kevin Painter, in 2004 by 2 sets to 0 to Andy Callaby, and in 2007 he went down 2-0 in sets to Adrian Gray.
The current Champion is Phil Taylor, who defeated Brendan Dolan 6-3 in the final on 9 October 2011.
Contents
Tournament format
This tournament has shorter opening rounds, which can lead to some surprise results, and players must commence and finish each leg on a double including the option of the bull.
There have been several different formats for the competition, the 1998 event was played in a matchplay format of legs rather than sets. The following year a group stage was introduced, where there were only four seeded players for the event, and all 4 reached the semi-finals, which is quite unusual in darts tournament history. The group stages were replaced again with straight knock-out for 2000. The present format has been in place since 2003, when the 2nd round was extended from best-of-3 to best-of-5 sets.
Sponsors
Sponsor Years None 1998 - 2001 Paddy Power 2002 - 2003 Sky Bet 2004 - 2007 Sky Poker 2008 - 2009 Bodog 2010 PartyPoker.com 2011 - present Venues
Venue Years Casino Rooms, Rochester, Kent 1998 - 1999 Crosbie Cedars Hotel, Rosslare[disambiguation needed 
]2000 Citywest Hotel, Dublin 2001 - present Finals
The list of finals:[1]
Year Winner Score Runner Up 1998 Phil Taylor13-8 (legs) Rod Harrington1999 Phil Taylor6-1 (sets) Shayne Burgess2000 Phil Taylor6-1 (sets) Shayne Burgess2001 Alan Warriner8-2 (sets) 
Roland Scholten2002 Phil Taylor7-3 (sets) 
John Part2003 Phil Taylor7-2 (sets) John Part2004 Colin Lloyd7-3 (sets) Alan Warriner2005 Phil Taylor 90.747-1 (sets) Colin Lloyd 82.052006 Phil Taylor 88.247-4 (sets) Terry Jenkins 82.512007 James Wade 86.036-3 (sets) Terry Jenkins 84.582008 Phil Taylor 97.816-2 (sets) Raymond van Barneveld 90.422009 Phil Taylor 97.076-3 (sets) Raymond van Barneveld 86.622010 James Wade 88.926-3 (sets) Adrian Lewis 89.332011 Phil Taylor6-3 (sets) 
Brendan DolanFinalists
As of 2011:
Player Won Runner-up Phil Taylor10 0 James Wade2 0 Colin Lloyd1 1 Alan Warriner1 1 Shayne Burgess0 2 John Part0 2 Terry Jenkins0 2 Raymond van Barneveld0 2 Rod Harrington0 1 Roland Scholten0 1 Adrian Lewis0 1 Brendan Dolan0 1 World Pairs winners
The World Pairs event which preceded the introduction of this event was held between 1995 and 1997.[2]
Year Winners Score Runners Up Venue 1995 Eric Bristow
Dennis Priestley14-9 (legs) Keith Deller
Jamie Harveyunknown, Ayr 1996 Bob Anderson
Phil Taylor18-15 (legs) Chris Mason
Steve RawWillows Variety Centre, Salford 1997 Raymond van Barneveld
Roland Scholten18-15 (legs) 
Richie Burnett
Rod HarringtonButlin's South Coast World, Bognor Regis Media coverage
The World Grand Prix has been broadcast in the UK by Sky Sports since the first tournament.
References
- ^ "World Grand Prix". dartsdatabase.co.uk. http://www.dartsdatabase.co.uk/TournamentDetails.aspx?TournKey=14. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
- ^ "PDC World Pairs Winners". dartsdatabase.co.uk. http://www.dartsdatabase.co.uk/TournamentDetails.aspx?TournKey=952. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
External links
World Grand Prix 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011Professional Darts Corporation tournaments Main tournaments
(in playing order)Premier League · UK Open · World Matchplay · European Championship · Championship League · World Grand Prix · Grand Slam of Darts · PDC World ChampionshipPDC Pro Tour Other tournaments RTL7 Masters · World Cricket Championship · South African Open · PDC World Youth Championship · PDC World Cup of Darts · North American Darts Championship · US OpenFormer tournaments German Darts Championship · Las Vegas Desert Classic · International Darts League · World Darts Trophy · Masters of Darts · World Series of Darts · Jocky Wilson Cup · South African Masters · PDC Women's World ChampionshipCategories:
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.