International Darts League

The Topic International Darts League was a darts tournament held at the Triavium in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Raymond van Barneveld dominated the tournament - held in his home country, by winning it for three of the five times it was held. Gary Anderson was the last champion having won the title in 2007 after the tournament became the first major event to witness two nine dart finishes.

Held in May, it was the second leg of the BDO’s Grand Slam title of televised majors, along with the World Darts Trophy, the Winmau World Masters and the Lakeside World Professional Championship.

It began as a tournament for BDO players but Dutch broadcaster SBS-6 invited five non-WDF/PDC players for the first time in 2006, and this total became 20 for the 2007 event. This was done with the agreement of the Schoofs Management & Events/Maximum Score - the owner and promoter of the tournament. [http://www.dartswdf.com/aa_darts/newsarchives/newsarchjan2006.html] .

2006 event

Raymond van Barneveld took the title in his home town with victory over Colin Lloyd.

2007 event

Gary Anderson took the title with victory over Mark Webster.

End of event

Towards the end of 2007, Barry Hearn announced that PDC players would not be competing in the 2008 IDL and WDT events which threw the events into doubt. SBS6 also announced they would not broadcast the event. The tournament promoters filed a lawsuit against the PDC and SBS6 claiming a contract had been agreed for the PDC players to be involved. The case ended in failure on 21 February 2008 and the International Darts League was indefinitely postponed. The World Darts Trophy was also thrown into doubt as a result of the decision [ [http://www.starsofdarts.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10285&st=80&start=80 IDL & WDT go to court] Superstars of darts forum ] and both events were confirmed defunct by the failure of an appeal on April 29, 2008. [ [http://translate.google.com/translate?sourceid=navclient&hl=en&u=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2eintdartsleague%2enl%2f IDL & WDT end] Google translation from official web site]

Format

The format has changed slightly over the years - the 2006 competition had 8 round-robin groups of 4 players. The top two players in each group qualified for another round-robin phase. Again, the top two players in each group progressed, but this time to the quarter-finals of the knockout stages.

Despite the presence of the PDC players in 2006, the tournament was a WDF/BDO ranking event, with all available points going only to the WDF/BDO players competing.

ponsors

2003-2005 Tempus, 2006-present Topic

Final Results

References

External links

* [http://www.intdartsleague.nl/eng/index.html International Darts League]
* [http://pluto.spaceports.com/~mot/darts/idl2006.htm IDL 2006 - A Review]