Circus Tavern - Geograph-3222467-by-David-Anstiss

The Circus Tavern is an entertainment venue in

Purfleet Purfleet-on-Thames is a town in the Thurrock unitary authority, Essex, England. It is bordered by the A13 road to the north and the River Thames to the south and is within the easternmost part of the M25 motorway but just outside the Greater ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England, that hosts functions, cabaret acts and is also a nightclub venue. First opened in 1974, it is most famous as having been a long-time venue of the

PDC World Darts Championship The PDC World Darts Championship, known for sponsorship purposes as the Paddy Power World Darts Championship is a world championship competition held annually in the sport of darts. The championship begins in December and ends in January and has ...

. Its capacity is 1,100 seated.

Darts championships

The Circus Tavern was the venue of the PDC World Darts Championships from its inauguration event in 1994, up until 2007, and broadcast on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

. Phil Taylor reached the final in all 14 of the

tournaments that were held at the Circus Tavern, winning 11 of those 14 finals (he lost to Dennis Priestley in 1994,

John Part John Part (born 29 June 1966) is a Canadian former professional darts player and current commentator, who competes in World Seniors events. Nicknamed "Darth Maple", he is a three-time World Champion, having won the 1994 BDO World Darts Champions ...

in 2003, and

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 ...

in 2007). The last World Championship match held at the Circus Tavern was the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship final, where Barneveld came from 0–3 down in sets to defeat Taylor, 7–6 in sets, after a sudden death leg. Many consider this match to be the greatest in the history of darts. At the time of the match, it was not known that it would be the last World Championship to be held at the Circus Tavern. On 2 April 2007, Barry Hearn announced that the

2008 PDC World Darts Championship The 2008 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the 15th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event took place between 17 December 2007 and 1 January ...

would be held 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 ...

. Other darts events were held at the Circus Tavern in the three years following. In 2008, the Circus Tavern was the venue for the opening round and the play-offs of the BetFred League of Legends, broadcast on

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports Media is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland and in Tbilisi, Georgia, broadcasting throughout select Eurasian countries, and the Philippines. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Iris ...

. In 2009 and 2010, the Players Championship Finals were held at the Circus Tavern, broadcast on ITV, featuring the top 32 players from the previous year's Players Championship Order of Merit. In 2019, the BDO signed a contract to hold the World Masters at the Circus Tavern. There were also two other televised darts events held at the Circus Tavern: *"The Battle of the Champions" on 29 June 1997, broadcast on

. This event featured Dennis Priestley defeating

3–0 in sets in the battle between the 1994 World Champions, Eric Bristow defeating Alan Evans 3–0 in sets in a Legends match between two old rivals, and reigning PDC World Champion Phil Taylor defeating 1995 BDO World Champion Richie Burnett 4–1 in sets in the Main Event. *"The Showdown" on 21 November 2004, broadcast on

Sky Box Office Sky Box Office is Sky Limited, Sky's pay-per-view (PPV) system operated in the United Kingdom and Ireland. There were three branded divisions of Sky Box Office – Sky Cinema Box Office, Sky Sports Box Office and Sky 3D Box Office. Until 1 Febr ...

. This event featured Eric Bristow defeating John Lowe 6–1 in legs in a Legends match between the two old rivals,

Roland Scholten Roland Scholten (born 11 January 1965) is a Dutch former professional darts player who played in events of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and British Darts Organisation (BDO). Nicknamed The Tripod and The Flying Dutchman, Scholten turn ...

defeating Wayne Mardle 6–5 in legs in the second match, and the Main Event between the reigning PDC World Champion Phil Taylor and the reigning BDO World Champion Andy Fordham. Originally intended to be best of 13 sets, Taylor was leading 5–2 when Fordham suffered breathing difficulties and was forced to retire. Since 2022, the Circus Tavern has hosted the World Seniors Darts Championship.

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 51.4859, 0.2461, type:landmark_region:GB-THR, display=title Sports venues in Thurrock Buildings and structures in Thurrock Darts venues Purfleet Darts in the United Kingdom