Wikipedia

1997 WDC World Darts Championship

The 1997 Red Band World Darts Championship was held between 29 December 1996 and 5 January 1997 at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, Essex. It was the fourth World Championship organised by the World Darts Council, which had acrimoniously split from the British Darts Organisation in 1992–93. As a result of an ongoing legal battle, this would be the last time that the WDC name would be used – an out-of-court settlement (Tomlin Order) in June 1997 meant that the organisation had to change its name to the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).

1997 Red Band World Darts Championship
Tournament information
Dates29 December 1996 –
5 January 1997
VenueCircus Tavern
LocationPurfleet
Country England
Organisation(s)PDC (WDC)
FormatSets
Final – best of 11
Prize fund£99,500
Winner's share£45,000
High checkout
Champion(s)
 Phil Taylor
«1996 1998»

Paul Lim, who famously hit a nine dart finish at the 1990 Embassy Championship appeared at his first WDC World Championship – he had only managed to qualify once for the Embassy since the split, losing a second round match to John Part in 1994.

The Championship saw two tight semi-finals, the most memorable of which was the clash between mentor and protégé – Eric Bristow and Phil Taylor. Taylor emerged victorious 5–4 in sets to reach the final. He matched his mentor's feat of five World Championship titles when he beat Dennis Priestley 6–3 in the final.[1] They were now level as the most successful players of all-time.

Seeds

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  1.   Dennis Priestley
  2.   Phil Taylor
  3.   Bob Anderson
  4.   Peter Evison
  5.   Jamie Harvey
  6.   Alan Warriner
  7.   Keith Deller
  8.   Rod Harrington

Prize money

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The prize fund was £99,500.

Position (num. of players) Prize money
(Total: £99,500)
Winner (1) £45,000
Runner-Up (1) £10,000
Third place (1) £5,000
Fourth place (1) £4,000
Quarter-finalists (4) £3,000
Group stage runners-up (8) £1,500
Group stage 3rd place (8) £1,250
Highest finish bonus (1) £1,500

Results

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Preliminary round

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A best of five sets preliminary round match took place between they were tied on the rankings.

Av. Player Score Player Av.
85.89 Ritchie Gardner   3 – 1   Dave Kelly 78.20
90.00 Paul Lim   3 – 2   Tom Kirby 83.00
95.05 Chris Mason   3 – 0   Peter Manley 89.10
101.89 Gary Mawson   3 – 1   Harry Robinson 87.33
75.21 Graeme Stoddart   3 – 1   Paul Knighton 51.83
79.44 Steve Raw   3 – 2   Jason Lucas 60.10
93.99 Dennis Smith   3 – 0   Jerry Umberger 50.01
73.45 Sean Downs   3 – 2   Tony Holyoake 69.47

Group Stages

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Knockout stages

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Quarter-finals (best of 9 sets)
2–3 January 		Semi-finals (best of 9 sets)
4 January 		Final (best of 11 sets)
5 January
         
A1   Eric Bristow 85.78 5
B1   Alan Warriner (6) 88.81 3
A1   Eric Bristow 86.97 4
D1   Phil Taylor (2) 93.73 5
C1   Keith Deller (7) 87.39 1
D1   Phil Taylor (2) 98.58 5
D1   Phil Taylor (2) 100.91 6
H1   Dennis Priestley (1) 96.79 3
E1   Peter Evison (4) 91.39 5
F1   Jamie Harvey (5) 83.96 3
E1   Peter Evison (4) 91.32 4 Third place play-off (best of 7 sets)
H1   Dennis Priestley (1) 94.34 5
G1   Rod Harrington (8) 94.50 2 A1   Eric Bristow 83.23 2
H1   Dennis Priestley (1) 94.73 5 E1   Peter Evison (4) 83.25 4

Representation from different countries

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This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship. Four countries were represented in the World Championship, one less than in the previous championship.

 
ENG 		 
USA 		 
CAN 		 
SCO 		 
IRL 		Total
Final 2 0 0 0 0 2
Semis 4 0 0 0 0 4
Quarters 7 0 0 1 0 8
Group Stages 18 5 1 1 1 26

References

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  1. ^ "Darts Database. Database of Darts Results Players and Statistics". www.dartsdatabase.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 October 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
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