2011 PDC World Darts Championship


The 2011 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the 18th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event took place at the Alexandra Palace, London from 16 December 2010 and 3 January 2011. A total of 72 players took part, 16 of whom began at the preliminary round stage, with the eight winners joining the remaining 56 players in the first round proper.
Phil Taylor was the defending champion, having won the 2010 tournament. He was knocked out of the tournament at the quarter final stage by Mark Webster, who in turn was defeated by Adrian Lewis in the semi-finals. Lewis went on to win the tournament, beating Gary Anderson 7–5 in the final to become only the fifth different PDC World Champion and the first to have won it without having won the rival BDO World Championship.
The final between Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson was the last match that Sid Waddell commentated on at the PDC World Darts Championship.
4-time PDC World Championship semi-finalist Wayne Mardle was a notable absentee, missing out on his first World Championship since 1999. The 3-time PDC World Championship finalist Peter Manley was also another notable absentee, having missed out since 1998.

Format and qualifiers

The televised stages featured 72 players from a minimum of 22 countries. The top 32 players in the PDC Order of Merit on 29 November 2010 were seeded for the tournament. They were joined by the 16 highest non qualified players in the Players Championship Order of Merit from events played on the PDC Pro Tour.
These 48 players were joined by two PDPA qualifiers, and 22 international players: the 4 highest names in the European Order of Merit not already qualified, the 2 highest names in the North American Order of Merit not already qualified and 16 further international qualifiers determined by the PDC and PDPA.
Some of the international players, such as the 4 from the European Order of Merit, and the top American and Australian players were entered straight into the first round, while others, having won qualifying events in their countries, were entered into the preliminary round.
Order of Merit
Pro Tour
  1. Steve Farmer
  2. Richie Burnett
  3. Steve Brown
  4. Justin Pipe
  5. Tony Eccles
  6. Dennis Smith
  7. Nigel Heydon
  8. Brendan Dolan
  9. Steve Hine
  10. Steve Maish
  11. Kevin McDine
  12. Mark Hylton
  13. Chris Thompson
  14. Peter Wright
  15. Steve Evans
  16. Joe Cullen
  17. Kirk Shepherd
European Order of Merit
First Round Qualifiers
PDPA Qualifiers
First Round Qualifier
Preliminary Round Qualifier
International Qualifiers
First Round Qualifiers
Preliminary Round Qualifiers
The 2011 World Championship featured a prize fund of £1,000,000 – the same as in the previous year. The Third Place Playoff did not take place this year.
The prize money is allocated as follows:

Schedule

Preliminary round

The preliminary round were played from Dec 16 to Dec 23 with one match per day. The format was best of 7 legs.
Player 1ScorePlayer 2
Gary Mawson 92.444–1 Juanito Gionzon 90.81
Roland Scholten 82.154–2 Veijo Viinikka 75.93
Matt Padgett 83.102–4 Morihiro Hashimoto 87.30
Per Laursen 91.054–2 Boris Krčmar 84.89
Jyhan Artut 83.864–3 Scott MacKenzie 84.94
Mickey Mansell 82.700–4 Preston Ridd 84.68
Devon Petersen 90.164–3 Norman Madhoo 82.05
Magnus Caris 80.244–3 Dietmar Burger 76.81

Last 64

The winner of the eight Preliminary Round matches joined 56 other players in the First Round.
The First Round draw took place on Tuesday 30 November live in the studio of Sky Sports News, and was conducted by 1983 World champion Keith Deller and Sky Sports darts' analyst and former World Matchplay champion, Rod Harrington.

Final

Statistics

PlayerEliminatedPlayedSets WonSets LostLegs WonLegs Lost100+140+180sHigh CheckoutAverage
Adrian LewisWinner62913101702211196016797.35
Gary AndersonRunner-up62712936216713658164103.06
Mark WebsterSemi-Finals520973491481022416796.76
Terry JenkinsSemi-Finals518137154182912917093.73
Phil TaylorQuarter-Finals41364632109681712697.60
Raymond van BarneveldQuarter-Finals412105043112792315695.88
Wes NewtonQuarter-Finals41555132103611113692.47
Vincent van der VoortQuarter-Finals41394442111601914891.98
Simon WhitlockThird Round394331757461616496.69
Andy SmithThird Round378312885401914093.09
Mark HyltonThird Round398373387471813891.82
Mark WalshThird Round378323686451614691.53
Robert ThorntonThird Round385272887331012591.21
Colin OsborneThird Round3105352971371413991.16
Mensur SuljovićThird Round377293176321313688.27
Peter WrightThird Round38732297748612087.57
Dennis PriestleySecond Round254211747281211194.74
Ronnie BaxterSecond Round23415153227611894.55
Mervyn KingSecond Round26422186336613694.35
Brendan DolanSecond Round23415144220510893.70
Paul NicholsonSecond Round25418183735714193.66
Wayne JonesSecond Round25520186031912092.76
James WadeSecond Round25422174828212190.54
Mark DudbridgeSecond Round245182142191210790.13
Per LaursenSecond Round33417195623310689.30
Alan TabernSecond Round266272586321216089.30
Steve BrownSecond Round24515194319912688.48
Colin LloydSecond Round25619254529613687.75
Denis OvensSecond Round23513183622210687.69
Jamie CavenSecond Round23517205417616186.60
Kevin McDineSecond Round24517224814812084.79
Andy HamiltonSecond Round23415154210610682.96
Tony EcclesFirst Round103691311817094.84
Steve FarmerFirst Round103391015116193.90
Steve MaishFirst Round1032910925893.76
Justin PipeFirst Round113792111416791.83
Nigel HeydonFirst Round113810301226191.53
Steve BeatonFirst Round1231113291447589.79
Co StompéFirst Round1136111811411188.74
Chris ThompsonFirst Round113610261029688.47
Shane TichowitschFirst Round113311151224087.58
Morihiro HashimotoFirst Round20341119646187.37
Steve EvansFirst Round1032918803587.35
John PartFirst Round10359157710086.76
Roland ScholtenFirst Round2037112112411286.40
Richie BurnettFirst Round123710271026486.02
Antonio AlcinasFirst Round1032914622085.92
Kirk ShepherdFirst Round11351016914085.74
Steve HineFirst Round11371129618885.70
Alex RoyFirst Round11371014846885.70
Devon PetersenFirst Round21312142213514684.99
Gary MawsonFirst Round203810161438184.97
Kevin PainterFirst Round10329175115684.84
Andree WelgeFirst Round12391025636384.65
Michael van GerwenFirst Round1136912948284.17
Jelle KlaasenFirst Round113510139211184.03
Bernd RoithFirst Round1032916709683.12
Jyhan ArtutFirst Round21310142910411282.29
Magnus CarisFirst Round20361225825581.96
Joe CullenFirst Round12361320745981.77
Darin YoungFirst Round1033912623280.57
Dennis SmithFirst Round1033915714080.10
Barrie BatesFirst Round113892910011678.80
Preston RiddFirst Round20059136110477.99
Juanito GionzonPrelim. Round1001411219690.81
Scott MacKenziePrelim. Round100348406084.94
Boris KrčmarPrelim. Round100244417684.89
Matt PadgettPrelim. Round100246304083.10
Michael MansellPrelim. Round1000455082.70
Norman MadhooPrelim. Round100346413682.05
Dietmar BurgerPrelim. Round1003412106476.81
Veijo ViinikkaPrelim. Round100246214075.93

Representation from different countries

This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round.

Television coverage

broadcast all 72 matches live in high-definition in the United Kingdom. Dave Clark presented the coverage with analysis from Rod Harrington and Eric Bristow. They also commentated on matches along with Sid Waddell, John Gwynne, Nigel Pearson, Rod Studd and Stuart Pyke. This was the first PDC World Championship where Dave Lanning wasn't commentating having retired prior to the tournament. Due to the ill health of Harrington, Wayne Mardle replaced him post-Christmas and featured both commentating and co-presenting alongside Clark. Former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff was also a guest commentator twice during tournament. Interviews were handled by either Clark, Bristow or Studd.
In the Netherlands SBS6 broadcast all matches live through a live stream on the SBS6 website and Sport1 broadcast all the matches on television, both with commentary provided by Jacques Nieuwlaat and Leo Oldenburger. In Germany it was broadcast live on Sport1 with co-commentary provided by Roland Scholten, and in Australia it was broadcast live on Fox Sports.