The 2018 William Hill World Darts Championship was a

darts Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, projectiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dartboard. Point ...

event, held between 14 December 2017 and 1 January 2018 at the

Alexandra Palace Alexandra Palace is an entertainment and sports venue in North London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. A listed building, Grade II listed building, it is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and th ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

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. It was the 25th

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

organised by the

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the Wor ...

since it separated from the

British Darts Organisation The British Darts Organisation (BDO) was a darts organisation founded on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft, and dissolved in 2020 under the stewardship of Des Jacklin. Made up of 66 member counties, it oversaw professional, semi-professional and ...

Michael van Gerwen Michael van Gerwen (; born 25 April 1989) is a Dutch professional darts player, who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world number three; he was ranked world number one from 20 ...

was the defending champion, but lost 6–5 in sets to Rob Cross in the semi-finals, with the score at 5–5 in sets and with van Gerwen leading 5–4 in legs he missed 5 match darts to beat Cross. Cross forced an 11th and sudden death leg, van Gerwen missed a 6th match dart before Cross hit double 8 to win an epic semi-final and reach his first world final. Cross went on to win the World Championship on his debut by defeating Phil Taylor 7–2 in the final. Cross only turned professional 11 months prior to the event. This was Taylor's 29th and final World Championship, surpassing the record of 28 appearances he jointly held with John Lowe. Jamie Lewis became the first player to reach the semi-finals after entering the championship through a preliminary round event, first introduced at the 2004 Championship. Lewis eventually fell to Taylor in the semi-final, by a score of 6–1.

Prize money

The prize money for the tournament was a record high of £1,800,000 in total. The winner's prize money increased from £350,000 to £400,000.

Qualification

Qualifiers

Order of Merit #

# Peter Wright # Gary Anderson #

Daryl Gurney Daryl Gurney (born 22 March 1986) is a Northern Irish professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number twenty-five; he reached a peak ranking of world number thre ...

# Mensur Suljović # Phil Taylor #

Adrian Lewis Adrian Lewis (born 21 January 1985) is an English professional darts player who formerly competed in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Nicknamed "Jackpot", he is a two-time PDC World Champion, having won the title in 2011 and 2012. ...

Dave Chisnall David Chisnall (born 12 September 1980) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number twelve; he reached a peak ranking of world number five in ...

# #

Simon Whitlock Simon Whitlock (born 3 March 1969) is an Australian professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, having previously competed in British Darts Organisation (BDO) events. Nicknamed "The Wizard", he won th ...

James Wade James Martin Wade (born 6 April 1983) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number nine; he reached a peak ranking of world number two in 2010. ...

# Jelle Klaasen # Michael Smith # Benito van de Pas # Alan Norris #

Gerwyn Price Gerwyn Price (born 7 March 1985) is a Welsh professional darts player and former professional rugby union and rugby league player. He competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world ...

# Ian White # Kim Huybrechts # Joe Cullen # #

Stephen Bunting Stephen Bunting (born 9 April 1985) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number four. Nicknamed "the Bullet", Bunting formerly competed in Brit ...

# Mervyn King # Darren Webster # Kyle Anderson # Steve Beaton # Cristo Reyes #

Justin Pipe Justin Pipe (born 9 November 1971) is an English former professional darts player who competed in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He won six PDC titles. Playing career Pipe was a Boxing, boxer in his youth, and, as a staunch anti- ...

# Robert Thornton # John Henderson # Mark Webster #

Jonny Clayton Jonny Clayton (born 4 October 1974) is a Welsh professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he is currently ranked world number five. Nicknamed "the Ferret", he has won four PDC major televised s ...

# James Wilson Pro Tour # Richard North # Vincent van der Voort # Christian Kist # Ronny Huybrechts # Jermaine Wattimena # Steve West # Zoran Lerchbacher # # Jan Dekker #

Keegan Brown Keegan Brown (born 5 November 1992) is an English professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He has won two ranking PDC Players Championship titles. Brown reached the quarter-finals at the 2014 Gran ...

# James Richardson # Peter Jacques # Martin Schindler # Chris Dobey #

Steve Lennon Steve Lennon (born 25 November 1993) is an Irish professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Nicknamed "Scuba Steve", he reached his first major quarter-final at the 2018 Players Championship Finals. He ...

# Kevin Painter PDPA Qualifier ''First round qualifier'' * Ted Evetts ''Preliminary round qualifiers'' *

Brendan Dolan Brendan Gabriel Dolan (born 2 August 1973) is a Northern Irish professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He was the first player to hit a nine-dart finish in a "double-to-start" event (where a pla ...

* Jamie Lewis International qualifiers (Alphabetical order) ''First round qualifiers'' * Toni Alcinas * Marko Kantele * William O'Connor * Devon Petersen * Diogo Portela * Krzysztof Ratajski * Kim Viljanen ''Preliminary round qualifiers'' * Seigo Asada * Willard Bruguier * Cody Harris * Luke Humphries * Kai Fan Leung *

Paul Lim Paul Lim Leong Hwa (born 25 January 1954) is a Singaporean professional darts player. Nicknamed "the Singapore Slinger", Lim was the first player to hit a perfect nine-dart finish during the Embassy World Darts Championship, which he achiev ...

* Alan Ljubić * Gordon Mathers * Kevin Münch * Kenny Neyens * * Bernie Smith * Jeff Smith * Xiaochen Zong

Background

72 players competed in the championship; with the 32 highest ranked players on the

PDC Order of Merit The PDC Order of Merit is a world ranking system used by one of the darts organisations, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Following the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship it superseded a world ranking system based on points being awarded ...

being seeded, and the next sixteen highest ranked players from the

2017 PDC Pro Tour The 2017 PDC Pro Tour was a series of non-televised darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). Players Championships, UK Open Qualifiers and European Tour events were the events that made up the Pro Tour. There were 40 ...

Order of Merit and the top eight ranked players from a number of international and invitational qualifiers also going straight into the first round. The remaining sixteen international and invitational qualifiers competed in a preliminary round.

, the winner of the

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and

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

championships, was top of the two-year

and number one seed going into the tournament. The tournament was to be the last for Phil Taylor, who had won the PDC World Championship fourteen times previously, most recently in

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

. As well as van Gerwen and Taylor, three other previous PDC world champions qualified as seeds, two-time champions Gary Anderson and

, and

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

champion

Raymond van Barneveld Raymond van Barneveld (born 20 April 1967) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he was ranked world number one from January 2008 to June 2008. Nicknamed "Barney", he is a five-t ...

. The top seeds below van Gerwen were 2017 UK Open winner Peter Wright, Gary Anderson, 2017 World Grand Prix winner

and 2017 Champions League of Darts winner Mensur Suljović. Rob Cross, the runner-up at the 2017 European Championship, made his World Championship debut as the 20th seed. Richard North, in his debut year, was the highest ranked non-seed on the

Order of Merit. As well as North, three other qualifiers through the Pro Tour made their debut, Peter Jacques,

and Martin Schindler. The list of qualifiers also included the 2017 Youth Champion Dimitri Van den Bergh and the 2004 runner-up Kevin Painter. Amongst the international and invitational qualification tournaments there was, for the first time, a South and Central American Qualifier. The majority of tournaments were the same as had been for the previous championship, but there was no longer a

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Championship. Gordon Mathers was the first player to qualify for the Championships, having finished top of the Dartplayers Australia rankings. The top two players on the Nordic & Baltic rankings also qualified, as did the winners of the fifteen international qualifiers, including the 2017 PDC World Youth Championship. The final four qualification places were announced on 19 October, with places being given to the highest ranked

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

an, Krzysztof Ratajski, the National Darts Federation of Canada number one Jeff Smith, the highest ranked

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

n, Devon Petersen, and the then-undetermined 2017 Development Tour winner, Luke Humphries. The sudden announcement of these places, and the granting of them to Ratajski, who had declined an invitation to the rival 2018 BDO World Darts Championship before failing to qualify through the

Order of Merit; and Jeff Smith, who had failed to qualify for the BDO World Darts Championship and not played a single PDC event in the previous year, were criticized by some, with

ITV4 ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which first aired on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV plc. The channel focuses primarily on general entertainment programming targeting a male audience, including action series and films, ...

pundit and tour card holder Paul Nicholson saying he had written to the Professional Darts Players Association to seek clarification over the placings. The final three placings were determined by the PDPA qualifier held at Arena MK on 27 November, with Ted Evetts securing a first round place by winning the tournament, and runner-up

and third-place playoff winner Jamie Lewis both qualifying to the preliminary round. The third place had become available as the 2017 PDC World Youth Championship, which carries a qualification place, was won by Dimitri Van den Bergh, who qualified through the Pro Tour Order of Merit. 15 of the international and invitational qualifiers were making their PDC World Championship debuts, Seigo Asada, Willard Bruguier, Ted Evetts, Cody Harris, Luke Humphries, Kai Fan Leung, Alan Ljubić, Gordon Mathers, Kenny Neyens, William O'Connor, Diogo Portela, Krzysztof Ratajski, Bernie Smith, Jeff Smith, and Zong Xiao Chen. Portela was the first ever Brazilian to qualify for the World Championships.

Summary

The top quarter of the draw saw reigning champion

dominate, knocking fellow Dutchman Christian Kist out in the first round, before defeating James Wilson, without losing any of the twelve legs played, and

, to set up a quarter-final with fellow Dutch former world champion

. In the quarter-final, van Gerwen took an early lead, but missed a dart in the fifth set to take a 4–1 lead and ended up being pulled back to 3–3. The two took one more set each before van Gerwen won the deciding set 3–1 to qualify for the semi-final. In the second quarter, the fourth seed,

, was eliminated in the second round by John Henderson. Debutant Rob Cross defeated Michael Smith in the second round after Smith missed two match darts, and Cross went on to defeat Henderson to set up a quarter-final against the World Youth Champion Dimitri Van den Bergh, who had defeated fifth seed Mensur Suljović in the third round. In the quarter-final, Cross led his Belgian opponent early on, leading 4–1 in the best-of-nine match after five sets. Van den Bergh took the next three sets in succession, setting up a decider which Cross won 3–1, hitting double one in the final leg to qualify for the semi-final. The two highest-ranked seeds in the third quarter fell early on. Two-time champion and seventh seed

was knocked out in the first round by German qualifier Kevin Münch, while the second seed Peter Wright was knocked out in the second round by Jamie Lewis, who had qualified for the event by coming third in the final PDPA Qualifier. Welshman Jamie Lewis went past the unseeded James Richardson in the third round, becoming the first player to go from the preliminary round to the quarter-final in the history of the championship; before

whitewash Whitewash, calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, asbestis or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk (calcium carbonate, CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes ...

ing Darren Webster to reach the semi-final. Two former world champions, two-time champion Gary Anderson and retiring sixteen-time champion Phil Taylor, met in the last quarter-final. Anderson's run to the quarter-final included a second round win over 63-year-old Singaporean,

, a match noted for a leg in which Lim, who in

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

had become the first player to throw a perfect nine-dart leg in the World Darts Championship, missed a dart at double twelve to repeat the feat. Taylor had faced English opposition in his three previous rounds, beating Chris Dobey in the first round before

ing

and

in the next two rounds to set up the quarter-final. Taylor took a 4–1 lead after winning six consecutive legs, and despite Anderson winning the next two sets, Taylor took advantage of missed darts in the eighth set to triumph, 5–3. The semi-final between Taylor and Lewis was the first to be played, and, despite Lewis winning the first set, Taylor took the next three, with Lewis having missed darts in all three sets to have potentially been 4–0 up. Taylor won the next two sets as well, before Lewis took the first two legs in the seventh set, with Taylor taking advantage of three missed set darts from Lewis to steal the set and qualify for the twenty-first World Darts Championship final in his career. In the second semi-final, debutant Cross took on reigning world champion van Gerwen. The first eight sets in the match all went with throw, with Cross taking a lead before being pegged back by van Gerwen. Michael van Gerwen got the first break in the ninth set, taking a 5–4 lead to throw for the match, but Cross fought back to win the tenth set 3–1 to force a deciding set. In the deciding set – which had to be won by two clear legs until the eleventh leg was reached – Cross missed a match-winning dart at the bull with the score at 3–2, before van Gerwen won two legs in succession to take a 5–4 lead. With both players under pressure, van Gerwen missed five darts to win the tenth leg, before Cross hit a double 18 to force a sudden death leg. Both Cross and van Gerwen missed match darts at double 16 before Cross hit double 8 to qualify for the final in his debut entry, becoming the first player to make the final on his debut since

Kirk Shepherd Kirk Shepherd (born 5 October 1986) is an English former professional darts player who competed in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) tournaments. He is best known for finishing as runner-up in the 2008 PDC World Darts Championship after star ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. In the final, held on

New Year's Day In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...

2018, Phil Taylor won the bull-off, but opted to allow Cross to throw first. Rob Cross held the first set 3–1, and broke in the second set by the same scoreline, before winning the third set 3–0. Taylor scored his first set with a 3–0 win in the fourth, before missing a dart at double twelve for a potential perfect nine-dart leg in the first leg of the fifth set. Cross won that leg and the next two to restore his three set lead, before breaking Taylor in the first leg of the sixth set, and the fourth leg of the seventh, taking a 6–1 lead in the best-of-thirteen match. Taylor held the eighth set 3–0, but Cross held the first leg in the ninth set, before hitting double-eight to break and go one leg away from the championship, and in the final leg, hit a 140 finish, treble-18, treble-18, double-16 to win the world championship.

Preliminary round

The draw was made on 26 November 2017. Best of three sets.

Main draw

The draw for the main round was made live on Sky Sports News on 27 November 2017.

Finals

Rounds 1-4

Final

Statistics

Top averages

This table shows the highest averages achieved by players throughout the tournament.

Representation from different countries

This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round. Twenty-four countries were represented in the World Championship, two more than in the previous championship.

Media coverage

The tournament was available in the following countries on these channels: Additionally, there was coverage in Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, France, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Monaco, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan on

Eurosport Player Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

, and coverage in all countries except the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands on the

's streaming service, PDCTV-HD. † Sky Sports Arena was renamed as Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the tournament.

References

External links

Official websiteResults and Schedule
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pdc World Darts Championship 2018

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2017 in sport in London 2018 in sport in London 2017 in British sport 2018 in British sport International sports competitions in London Alexandra Palace December 2017 sports events in the United Kingdom PDC World Darts