1980 BDO World Darts Championship

The 1980 Embassy World Darts Championship was the third year that the British Darts Organisation had staged a world championship. Again the field was 24 players, with the top seeds receiving a bye to the last 16 stage. For the second successive year the tournament was staged at Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke-on-Trent.

1980 Embassy World Darts Championship
Tournament information
Dates2–9 February 1980
VenueJollees Cabaret Club[1]
LocationStoke-on-Trent
Country England
Organisation(s)BDO
FormatSets
Final – best of 9
Prize fund£15,000
Winner's share£4,500
High checkout161 England Tony Sontag
161 Australia Terry O'Dea
Champion(s)
England Eric Bristow[2]
«1979 1981»

Defending champion John Lowe, who had released a book The Lowe Profile just before the event suffered a surprise defeat 0–2 to Cliff Lazarenko saying afterwards "If you miss your doubles in this one, you must expect to go out." Eric Bristow was then immediately installed as favourite to win the event and would meet another flamboyant character of the game in the final – Bobby George.

George, who was not invited to the qualifiers the previous year appeared in a sequined shirt and when arriving on the stage was presented with a candelabra to complete a Liberace effect. He also made the early running in the final leading 1–0, 2–1 and 3–2. The first six sets all went to a deciding leg until Bristow won the seventh 3–1 to establish a 4–3 set lead. In the next set at 2–2 in legs, George had a golden opportunity to level the match and take it to a decider, but bust his score and nonchalantly threw his third dart into the board before putting his darts into his top pocket in anticipation of Bristow checking out to win the title. Bristow did so.[citation needed]

Bristow later said: "This was the final that changed the game of darts forever. Before that the audiences were always quite subdued, there was never really a buzz around the place, but when Bobby and I played in that final every member of the audience got involved. Everybody quite simply was going mad. It was a pit of noise. He had his fans, I had mine and both wanted to out-shout each other.[3]

Seeds

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  1.   John Lowe
  2.   Eric Bristow
  3.   Tony Brown
  4.   Leighton Rees
  5.   Bobby George
  6.   Nicky Virachkul
  7.   Jocky Wilson
  8.   Ceri Morgan

Prize money

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The prize fund was £15,000.

Champion: £4,500
Runner-Up: £2,000
3rd Place: £500
Semi-Finalists (2): £1,000
Quarter-Finalists (4): £500
Last 16 (8): £300
Last 24 (8): £200

Results

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First round (best of 3 sets)
2–3 February
Second round (best of 3 sets)
4–6 February
Quarter-finals (best of 5 sets)
6–7 February
Semi-finals (best of 7 sets)
8 February
Final (best of 9 sets)
9 February
1  John Lowe 86.430
  Paul Gosling 77.790  Cliff Lazarenko 89.042
  Cliff Lazarenko 86.793
  Cliff Lazarenko 81.402
8  Ceri Morgan 86.701
8  Ceri Morgan 76.382
  Allan Hogg 72.211  Alan Grant 71.251
  Cliff Lazarenko 84.271
  Alan Grant 77.192
5  Bobby George 79.894
5  Bobby George 91.202
  Len Heard 76.170  Dave Whitcombe 84.150
5  Bobby George 75.393
  Dave Whitcombe 81.992
4  Leighton Rees 73.591
4  Leighton Rees 78.782
  Rab Smith 85.021  Tony Sontag 81.930
5  Bobby George 86.493
  Tony Sontag 84.1512
2  Eric Bristow 88.115
2  Eric Bristow 79.892
  Alan Glazier 69.330  Tony Clark 79.230
2  Eric Bristow 81.903
  Tony Clark 78.452
7  Jocky Wilson 78.900
7  Jocky Wilson 82.112
  Conrad Daniels 77.010  Doug McCarthy 79.140
2  Eric Bristow 86.224
  Doug McCarthy 74.252
3  Tony Brown 86.283
6  Nicky Virachkul 76.560
  Stefan Lord 78.391  Bill Lennard 82.802
  Bill Lennard 79.800
  Bill Lennard 75.572
3  Tony Brown 84.303
3  Tony Brown 82.502
  Eric MacLean 81.721  Terry O'Dea 76.770
  Terry O'Dea 82.292

3rd place match (best of 3 sets)   Cliff Lazarenko 88.02 0 – 2 Tony Brown   99.24

References

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  1. ^ "The World Championship of Darts". Learnaboutdarts.com. Archived from the original on 18 December 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
  2. ^ Ralph Hickok (16 January 2010). "History – World Darts Champions". HickokSports.com. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2011.
  3. ^ Bristow, Eric (2010). The Crafty Cockney: the Autobiography. London: Arrow. p. 139. ISBN 9780099532798.