The 2009 Blue Square UK Open was the seventh year of the PDC darts tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competed in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion. The tournament was held at the

Reebok Stadium The Toughsheet Community Stadium is a Association football, football stadium in Horwich near Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. It is the home ground of Bolton Wanderers F.C., Bolton Wanderers Football Club, with an all-seated capacity of 28, ...

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, between 4–7 June 2009 and has the nickname, "the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

of darts" as a random draw is staged after each round until the final. Phil Taylor won the title for the third time by defeating Colin Osborne 11–6 in the final.

2009 UK Open Regional Finals

There were eight regional final events staged between January and May 2009 to determine the UK Open Order of Merit Table. The tournament winners were: :11 January (North-East;

Doncaster Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...

): Colin Lloyd 6–1 Colin Osborne :8 March (Scotland; Irvine): Robert Thornton 6–2 Dennis Priestley :15 March (North-West;

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

): James Wade 6–3 Kevin McDine :22 March (South-East; Brentwood): Phil Taylor 6–4 Terry Jenkins :29 March (West Midlands;

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

): Phil Taylor 6–5 Wayne Jones :12 April (South-West;

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

): Phil Taylor 6–0 Andy Hamilton :19 April (East Midlands;

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

): Mark Walsh 6–5 Raymond van Barneveld :10 May (Wales; Newport): Jamie Caven 6–5 Alan Tabern

Format and qualifiers

The tournament features 129 players. As in previous years, eight regional UK Open events were staged across the UK where players winning are collated into the UK Open Order Of Merit. The top 96 players and ties in the list, who played a minimum of three events received a place at the final stages. The Holsten qualifiers and the players outside the top 32 of the UK Open Order of Merit began the tournament on the Thursday night. They played down to 32 players, and they were joined by the top 32 of the UK Open Order of Merit the following night, to provide the competition's last 64. A random draw was made after each subsequent round. 32 players were due to have qualified from four Holsten Pils qualifiers held in

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Waterside Theatre. It is located in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wycombe and Milt ...

Batley Batley is a market town in the Kirklees district, in West Yorkshire, England, south-west of Leeds, north-west of Wakefield and Dewsbury, south-east of Bradford and north-east of Huddersfield, in the Heavy Woollen District. In 2011, the popu ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

and

Salford Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...

. However, Peter Green had to withdraw for unknown reasons, thus meaning there were only 31 qualifiers present in Bolton. Aylesbury * Phil Currie * Steve Dolan * Adrian Genery * ~~Peter Green~~ * John McGuirk * Steve Penney * Stuart Pickles * Coen Wiekamp * Eddie Lovely Batley * Alan Davie *

Glen Durrant Glen Durrant (born 24 November 1970), nicknamed "Duzza", is an English former professional darts player who competed in British Darts Organisation (BDO) and Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Durrant is a three-time BDO World Champi ...

* Chris Hornby * Stuart Monaghan * David Smurthwaite * Gary Stevens * Graham Usher * Darren Weaver Birmingham *

Paul Cook Paul Thomas Cook (born 20 July 1956) is an English musician, best known as the drummer and a founding member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He is nicknamed "Cookie" by friends in the punk music scene. Early life and career Cook was ...

* Mark Cox * Johnny Haines * Mike Langley * Mark Layton * Andy Pearce * Andy Roberts * Paul Rowley Salford * Kevin Beare *

Andy Boulton Andrew Boulton (born 25 February 1973) is a Scottish professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Nicknamed "X-Factor", he has won four titles on the PDC Challenge Tour. Career BDO, UK Open appearances ...

* Matthew Campbell * Les Fitton * Duane Garfield * Ken Mather * Harry Robinson * Derek Williams

Prize money

In addition, Holsten offered a £3,000 bonus to the Pub Qualifier to get the furthest into the tournament (shared by Ken Mather and Andy Roberts).

Draw

The draw for the preliminary, first and second rounds was made on 25 May, ahead of the 2009 Premier League Darts play-offs by

Sid Waddell Sidney Waddell (10 August 1940 – 11 August 2012) was an English sports commentator and television personality. He was nicknamed the 'Voice of Darts' due to his fame as a darts commentator, and worked for Granada Television, Granada, Yorkshire ...

and

Keith Deller Keith Deller (born 24 December 1959) is an English former professional darts player best known for winning the 1983 BDO World Darts Championship. He also won the Unipart British Professional Championship in 1987. He was the first qualifier t ...

Preliminary round

This match was the best of eleven legs, and was played on 4 June.

First round

* All matches were the best of eleven legs, and were played on 4 June.

Second round

* All matches were the best of eleven legs, and were played on 4 June. † Mark Lawrence was given a bye into round three, as Paul Cook was disqualified.

Third round

* All matches were the best of seventeen legs, and were played on 5 June.

Fourth round

* All matches were the best of seventeen legs, and were played on 6 June.

Final stages

There was a draw after each round; this bracket has been compiled retrospectively.

References

External links

The official PDC page for the Blue Square UK Open
{{2009 in PDC darts UK Open UK Open Darts