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2007 Grand Slam of Darts

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The 2007 PartyBets.com Grand Slam of Darts was the inaugural staging of the darts tournament, the Grand Slam of Darts, held by the Professional Darts Corporation. The tournament invited the best performing players from the PDC and its rival the British Darts Organisation. There had been two previous head-to-head matches between the champions of the two organisations and a few tournaments have also featured BDO v PDC clashes. This tournament was the first of its kind to be held in the United Kingdom.

2007 PartyBets.com Grand Slam of Darts
Tournament information
Dates17–25 November 2007
VenueWolverhampton Civic Hall
LocationWolverhampton
Country England
Organisation(s)PDC
FormatLegs
Prize fund£300,000
Winner's share£80,000
High checkout170 England James Wade
Champion(s)
England Phil Taylor
2008»

The 2007 tournament was staged at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, England from 17–25 November 2007. Phil Taylor won the title, beating Andy Hamilton 18–11 in the final. In one of the early group matches which may not have stood out at the time, John Part narrowly beat Mark Webster 5–4 and less than two months later the two players became the World Champions of their respective organisations.

Format

The 32 players were split into eight groups of four players with the top two from each group qualifying for the last 16 knockout stages. Each player was therefore guaranteed three matches in the competition. Two points were awarded for a win. All group games were best of 9 legs, the second-round games were extended to best of 19 legs, the semi-finals best of 25 legs, and the final best of 35 legs.

Prize money

PartyPoker.net increased the prize fund for the event from the original announcement of £250,000 to £300,000 making it the second richest tournament in 2007 – ahead of both the Premier League and the BDO World Championship.[1]

Position (num. of players) Prize Money
(Total: £300,000)
Winner (1) £80,000
Runner-up (1) £35,000
Semi-finalists (2) £15,000
Quarter-finalists (4) £10,000
Last 16 (Second round) (8) £6,000
Last 32 (Group stage) (16) £4,000

Controversy

Controversy hit the tournament in May when it was confirmed by the BDO that the Winmau World Masters had been moved from its original dates of 26–28 October to a new date of 16–18 November,[2] clashing directly with the Grand Slam. This meant that players from the BDO were forced into a direct choice between competing at the Masters for valuable ranking points or taking their place at the Grand Slam for better prize money. BDO World Champion Martin Adams almost immediately confirmed that he would participate in the Masters, though he was the only BDO player to do so.[3] Adams went out in the quarter-finals of the World Masters meaning his pay cheque of £1,250 was significantly less than the £4,000 he would have received simply for turning up at the Grand Slam. Adams also declined the chance to compete in 2008, even though the two tournaments did not clash as the Masters was moved to December.

Qualifiers

The PDC Chairman Barry Hearn announced on 21 February 2007 that all major tournament finalists for the past two years from both the BDO and PDC will be invited to the event. Also World Championship semi-finalists from the same period would receive an invite.

The tournaments used for the qualifying criteria were the two World Championships, the World Matchplay, World Grand Prix and World Masters (2006 only), UK Open, Las Vegas Desert Classic, Premier League, World Series of Darts, International Darts League and the World Darts Trophy with the field set at 32 players.

BDO players Gary Anderson, Mark Webster, Shaun Greatbatch, Niels de Ruiter, Phill Nixon and Scott Waites all accepted invites to the event leaving Martin Adams (the BDO World Champion) as the only player to have rejected the opportunity to play.[4] He participated in the 2007 Winmau World Masters instead, losing at the quarter-final stage.

Note: Players in italics had already qualified for the tournament.

During the qualification period, players who had already sealed their places at the Grand Slam continued to reach major finals which left the PDC with several vacant positions. The qualifying criteria was therefore extended to include the highest ranked non-qualifiers from the PDC and WDF (Dennis Priestley and Scott Waites[5]). A wildcard tournament qualifier was expanded to two qualifiers (Chris Mason & Kevin McDine). Other events to be awarded places were the DPA Australian Open (Glenn Power, who was replaced by Pat Orreal due to visa restrictions[6]), the South African Open (Charles Losper), the North American Order of Merit (Gary Mawson). Finally, the next two highest ranked players from the PDC rankings were added (Ronnie Baxter and Kevin Painter[7]) to complete the 32 man field.

Draw and results

Group Stages

All matches race-to-5/best of 9.

NB in Brackets: Number = Seeds; BDO = BDO Darts player; RQ = Ranking Qualifier; Q = Qualifier
NB: P = Played; W = Won; L = Lost; LF = Legs For; LA = Legs Against; +/- = Plus/Minus Record, in relation to legs; Average = 3-dart average; Pts = Points

Knockout Stages

Second round (best of 19 legs)
21–22 November 		Quarter-finals (best of 19 legs)
23 November 		Semi-finals (best of 25 legs)
24 November 		Final (best of 35 legs)
25 November
            
A1   Raymond van Barneveld (1) 101.01 7
B2   Terry Jenkins (8) 102.14 10
B2   Terry Jenkins (8) 93.59 8
B1   Andy Hamilton 98.24 10
B1   Andy Hamilton 96.60 10
A2   Adrian Lewis 96.08 8
B1   Andy Hamilton 94.30 13
D2   Kevin McDine (Q) 94.73 12
C1   James Wade (4) 102.55 7
D2   Kevin McDine (Q) 105.79 10
D2   Kevin McDine (Q) 98.97 10
D1   Jelle Klaasen (5) 91.90 3
D1   Jelle Klaasen (5) 89.14 10
C2   Pat Orreal (Q) 85.47 9
B1   Andy Hamilton 100.97 11
E1   Phil Taylor (2) 101.75 18
E1   Phil Taylor (2) 103.17 10
F2   Gary Mawson (Q) 91.12 4
E1   Phil Taylor (2) 99.28 10
F1   John Part (7) 92.61 7
F1   John Part (7) 96.18 10
E2   Colin Lloyd 93.67 7
E1   Phil Taylor (2) 96.86 13
G2   Gary Anderson (BDO, 3) 99.11 11
G1   Kevin Painter (RQ) 97.27 10
H2   Mervyn King 92.57 7
G1   Kevin Painter (RQ) 91.74 7
G2   Gary Anderson (BDO, 3) 94.06 10
H1   Roland Scholten 95.70 7
G2   Gary Anderson (BDO, 3) 98.35 10

Statistics

Player Played Legs Won Legs Lost 100+ 140+ 180s High Checkout 3-dart Average [8]
  Raymond van Barneveld 4 22 18 47 32 14 120 102.82
  Adrian Lewis 4 21 19 60 25 6 150 96.44
  Dennis Priestley 3 11 14 42 11 7 88 95.76
  Chris Mason 3 7 15 33 6 4 157 86.62
  Andy Hamilton 7 59 54 127 76 33 145 95.61
  Vincent van der Voort 3 10 11 22 20 3 96 92.16
  Terry Jenkins 5 30 26 70 52 10 140 93.28
  Charles Losper 3 6 15 25 14 1 68 85.83
  James Wade 4 22 16 49 31 10 170 98.65
  Phill Nixon 3 13 10 31 13 4 116 83.49
  Pat Orreal 4 20 20 40 28 7 115 85.98
  Niels de Ruiter 3 2 15 20 6 1 98 79.15
  Jelle Klaasen 5 27 28 84 33 9 125 90.61
  Kevin McDine 6 45 31 114 45 23 161 97.68
  Shaun Greatbatch 3 7 11 25 14 3 164 90.74
  Peter Manley 3 8 14 34 15 2 76 87.40
  Phil Taylor 7 66 39 128 89 29 153 99.25
  Wayne Mardle 3 8 12 26 7 3 65 86.57
  Colin Lloyd 4 18 19 39 33 7 150 94.60
  Ronnie Baxter 3 7 15 25 13 4 134 86.48
  Gary Mawson 4 16 20 46 25 5 136 87.87
  Andy Jenkins 3 8 11 25 15 2 141 90.84
  John Part 5 29 26 66 28 9 126 92.06
  Mark Webster 3 10 11 25 17 2 117 95.81
  Kevin Painter 5 31 23 66 33 19 120 92.82
  Gary Anderson 6 42 33 99 67 22 158 97.50
  Barrie Bates 3 5 11 26 10 0 123 85.47
  Wayne Jones 3 7 14 27 21 2 81 89.57
  Roland Scholten 4 22 14 56 28 10 144 102.16
  Mervyn King 4 20 20 57 30 8 78 96.14
  Michael van Gerwen 3 8 14 25 19 6 76 92.04
  Scott Waites 3 7 15 25 11 3 96 87.77

Television coverage

The tournament was televised by ITV. The first afternoon session on 17 November, the Sunday afternoon session on 18 November, the semi-finals, and the final were all be broadcast live on ITV1. The rest of the tournament was shown live on ITV4. It was ITV's first televised darts tournament since they ceased coverage of the Winmau World Masters in 1988 – although they did show the first Clash of Champions match between Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld in 1999.[9]

The ITV Sport team consisted of lead presenter Matt Smith, analysts Steve Beaton and Alan Warriner-Little, and commentators John Rawling from ITV Boxing, Stuart Pyke from Sky Sports and Nigel Pearson of talkSPORT.

References

  1. ^ Sponsor confirmed Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine Planet Darts
  2. ^ BDO confirm new date for the World Masters Archived 2007-08-06 at the Wayback Machine BDO
  3. ^ "Stuart Pyke website regarding Martin Adams withdrawal from event". Archived from the original on 31 December 2007. Retrieved 22 December 2007.
  4. ^ Anderson & Webster accept invites Archived 2007-07-01 at the Wayback Machine Planet Darts
  5. ^ Priestley & Waites invited Archived 2008-01-08 at the Wayback Machine Planet Darts
  6. ^ Orreal to Replace Power Archived 2007-12-11 at the Wayback Machine Planet Darts
  7. ^ Final two places to come from Order of Merit Archived 2007-12-17 at the Wayback Machine Planet Darts
  8. ^ Tournament averages Darts Database
  9. ^ ITV agree to cover Grand Slam This is London
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