2007 World Matchplay (darts)

Stan James World Matchplay
Tournament information
Dates July 22–28
Venue Winter Gardens
Location Blackpool
Country England
Organisation(s) PDC
Format Legs
Prize fund £200,000
Winners share £50,000
High checkout 170 England Kevin Painter
Champion(s)
England James Wade
«2006 2008»

The 2007 Stan James World Matchplay was the 14th annual staging of a professional darts tournament by the Professional Darts Corporation. It was held at its traditional home, the Winter Gardens, Blackpool between July 22 and July 29. James Wade won his first major title, defeating Terry Jenkins in the final.

Defending and eight times champion, Phil Taylor suffered a semi-final defeat to Jenkins, meaning that he had surrendered both the World Championship and World Matchplay titles for the first time since the PDC began in 1994. Raymond van Barneveld, who went into this event having won the first three televised majors of the year (World Championship, UK Open and Las Vegas Desert Classic) saw his hopes of the first ever clean-sweep evaporate with a quarter-final defeat to Adrian Lewis. Barneveld was making his debut in the event having failed to qualify in 2006.

Both Lewis and Jenkins suffered hangovers from their victories over the two favourites as they lost their next matches - with James Wade capitalising. He beat Lewis in the semi-final and Jenkins in the final. Wade became the youngest winner of a PDC televised title at the age of 24 and also rose to number three in the world rankings.

Qualification

PDC Top 16
  1. England Phil Taylor (Semi-finals)
  2. Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld (Quarter-finals)
  3. England Colin Lloyd (First round)
  4. England Peter Manley (First round)
  5. England Terry Jenkins (Runner-Up)
  6. England Dennis Priestley (Second round)
  7. England Adrian Lewis (Semi-finals)
  8. England Wayne Mardle (Second round)
  9. Netherlands Roland Scholten (Quarter-finals)
  10. England Andy Hamilton (Second round)
  11. England James Wade (Winner)
  12. Canada John Part (Second round)
  13. England Ronnie Baxter (Quarter-finals)
  14. England Andy Jenkins (Second round)
  15. Wales Barrie Bates (Second round)
  16. England Kevin Painter (Second round)
PDPA Players Championship qualifiers
  1. England Chris Mason (First round)
  2. England Mark Dudbridge (First round)
  3. England Mark Walsh (First round)
  4. England Colin Osborne (First round)
  5. England Denis Ovens (First round)
  6. England Wayne Jones (First round)
  7. England Alan Tabern (First round)
  8. England Wes Newton (First round)
  9. England Andy Smith (First round)
  10. England Alan Warriner-Little (First round)
  11. Republic of Ireland Mick McGowan (First round)
  12. England Mervyn King (Quarter-finals)
  13. Netherlands Michael van Gerwen (Second round)
  14. England Adrian Gray (First round)
  15. England Steve Beaton (First round)
  16. England Bob Anderson (First round)

Prize fund

Winner: £50,000
Runner-Up: £20,000
Semi-finalists: £10,000
Quarter-finalists: £7,500
Last 16: £5,000
1st round losers: £2,500
Total: £200,000
Nine-dart jackpot: £10,000 - not won, becomes £15,000 for World Grand Prix

Draw

1st Round, 22–24 July,
best of 19[1][2] 		Round 2, 24–25 July,
best of 25 		Quarter Finals, 26 July,
best of 31 		Semi Finals, 27 July,
best of 33 		Final, 28 July,
best of 35
               
1 England Phil Taylor 97.89 10
England Wes Newton 84.07 2
1 England Phil Taylor 101.15 13
16 England Kevin Painter 95.40 6
16 England Kevin Painter 89.78 12
England Adrian Gray 84.79 10
1 England Phil Taylor 97.06 16
9 Netherlands Roland Scholten 85.33 1
8 England Wayne Mardle 89.38 10
England Mark Dudbridge 87.09 7
8 England Wayne Mardle 94.06 6
9 Netherlands Roland Scholten 93.25 13
9 Netherlands Roland Scholten 90.58 13
England Chris Mason 88.63 11
1 England Phil Taylor 98.44 11
5 England Terry Jenkins 95.58 17
5 England Terry Jenkins 95.23 10
England Alan Tabern 92.79 5
5 England Terry Jenkins 92.98 13
12 Canada John Part 91.83 8
12 Canada John Part 94.62 10
England Alan Warriner-Little 85.00 5
5 England Terry Jenkins 91.61 16
13 England Ronnie Baxter 87.03 13
4 England Peter Manley 79.57 9
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 88.00 11
Netherlands Michael van Gerwen 87.81 12
13 England Ronnie Baxter 87.75 14
13 England Ronnie Baxter 85.61 10
England Bob Anderson 84.78 6
5 England Terry Jenkins 91.62 7
11 England James Wade 96.83 18
2 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 95.23 10
England Denis Ovens 94.81 7
2 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 100.53 13
15 Wales Barrie Bates 83.27 5
15 Wales Barrie Bates 92.36 10
England Andy Smith 85.32 8
2 Netherlands Raymond van Barneveld 94.25 14
7 England Adrian Lewis 96.81 16
7 England Adrian Lewis 90.00 10
England Steve Beaton 83.24 4
7 England Adrian Lewis 100.45 13
10 England Andy Hamilton 93.42 9
10 England Andy Hamilton 79.63 10
Republic of Ireland Mick McGowan 73.58 6
7 England Adrian Lewis 101.26 7
11 England James Wade 101.90 17
6 England Dennis Priestley 93.13 10
England Colin Osborne 92.31 5
6 England Dennis Priestley 90.89 14
11 England James Wade 86.67 16
11 England James Wade 88.88 10
England Wayne Jones 87.40 7
11 England James Wade 89.53 16
England Mervyn King 88.58 11
3 England Colin Lloyd 89.62 4
England Mervyn King 92.08 10
England Mervyn King 96.85 13
14 England Andy Jenkins 91.88 4
14 England Andy Jenkins 88.89 10
England Mark Walsh 89.58 6

Scores after player's names are three-dart averages (total points scored divided by darts thrown and multiplied by 3)

All games had to be won by 2 clear legs (e.g. in Rd 1 there could not be a 10-9 scoreline it had to be 11-9 or 10-8)

Television coverage

Sky Sports broadcast the event live in the UK & Ireland for the 14th year running. The final between Wade & Jenkins achieved viewing figures of 183,000 - although that was surpassed by the quarter finals on Thursday (188,000) and the semi-finals on Friday received the highest viewing figures with 240,000 (the third highest-rated programme on Sky Sports 1 for that week) [3]

Tournament review

Two of the first night's matches went to the tie-break as Kevin Painter fought back from 4-6 down to edge Adrian Gray 12-10. Adrian Lewis hit five 180s and five ton-plus finishes in his first round win over Mark Dudbridge and the other tie-breaker had Chris Mason missing a dart at the bullseye and two at double-eight for the match before losing 11-13 to Roland Scholten

Afternoon wins for Terry Jenkins, Ronnie Baxter and John Part were followed by Barrie Bates battling the symptoms of gout to overcome Andy Smith 10-8. The evening session saw Dennis Priestley beat rising talent Colin Osborne before Michael van Gerwen beat Peter Manley in a tie-break 11-9 having led 5-2 and 8-4. Phil Taylor won eight successive legs from 2-2 against Wes Newton to go through. Mervyn King beat the 2005 champion Colin Lloyd 10-4 with Lloyd having to hit three ton-plus finishes to stay in the match. "Jaws" now faces a slip down the world rankings as a result of losing ranking points from his title success of two years ago.

It wasn't until the third evening that World Champion Raymond van Barneveld appeared in the tournament - his debut in the World Matchplay having failed to qualify the previous year. A break of throw in the sixth leg against Denis Ovens saw van Barneveld edge clear and the rest of the match went with the throw as the Dutchman went through 10-7. The second round got underway with Roland Scholten racing to a 6-1 lead over Wayne Mardle with some clinical finishing - Mardle was unable to catch up and went out 6-13. Terry Jenkins continued his fine form coming from 4-5 behind to lead 9-6 against John Part and three of the next four legs put the Bull clear and he closed out the match 13-8.

The afternoon session saw James Wade sneak into the quarter-finals as Dennis Priestley missed a dart at double top to win 13-11. Wade himself missed 11 doubles to take the match before a double 10 sealed a 16-14 win. Mervyn King went through having won 10 out of 11 legs from 3-3 to beat Andy Jenkins 13-4. Ronnie Baxter was one leg from defeat to Michael van Gerwen at 10-12 but won four successive legs to beat the Dutch teenage sensation who missed an incredible seven darts to stay in the match in the decisive 26th leg.

The evening session went to the higher seeded players as Adrian Lewis, Raymond van Barneveld and Phil Taylor all progressed to the last eight.

Ronnie Baxter almost produced another superb comeback in the first quarter-final against Terry Jenkins. He was 15-8 down in a race to 16, but took five successive legs to be within striking distance before Jenkins stumbled over the line 16-13. James Wade broke Mervyn King's throw in the sixth leg, then led 7-3 and 9-6 and always stayed in front to reach the semi-final 16-11.

Adrian Lewis produced a major shock knocking out world champion Raymond van Barneveld in the first evening quarter-final. Van Barneveld was 8-5 and 12-11 up but Lewis roared on by the crowd took five of the last seven legs to win 16-14. Phil Taylor was last on stage and stormed past Roland Scholten taking the first eight legs before Scholten got on the scoreboard. Taylor then took another eight successive legs to win 16-1, the most comprehensive quarter-final win in the history of the tournament.

Terry Jenkins beat Phil Taylor to set up a final with James Wade. Jenkins was in superb form en route to a 17-11 victory in a match where Taylor was heavily booed during his walk on, to record his first ever victory over "The power". his first ever against the 13-time world champion. Earlier Wade clinched his place in the final in Blackpool with a clinical demolition of Adrian Lewis. Wade hit 70 per cent of his checkouts, including four of over 100, as Lewis failed to build on Thursday's thrilling quarter-final win over Raymond van Barneveld. Eight successive legs sealed it for Wade, who hoped to go one better than last year when he was vanquished by Taylor in the final.

A new name on the trophy was guaranteed and James Wade took a 6-1 lead early on in the race for the title. Terry Jenkins was never able to reach the heights of his semi-final win over Phil Taylor but never gave up including a 120 finish to fight back to 7-15 but that was to be his last leg victory as Wade took the title with a double top for an 18-7 win and his first televised tournament success.

References

  1. ↑ "Averages all the way". Darts Database. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  2. ↑ "Seeds". Darts Database. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  3. ↑ BARB viewing summary
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