Skol World Darts Championship | |||
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Tournament information | |||
Dates | 26 December 1993-2 January 1994 | ||
Venue | Circus Tavern | ||
Location | Purfleet, Essex | ||
Country | England, United Kingdom | ||
Organisation(s) | PDC (WDC) | ||
Format |
Sets Final – best of 11 |
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Prize fund | £64,000 | ||
Winners share | £16,000 | ||
Champion(s) | |||
Dennis Priestley | |||
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The 1994 Skol World Darts Championships was held following 18 months of controversy within the sport of darts. After the 1993 Embassy World Championships, several players decided it was time to part company with the British Darts Organisation (who had always organised the World Championship) and form their own organisation. The new organisation was known as the World Darts Council (WDC). The WDC would later become the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC).
The WDC decided to introduce their own separate World Championship, with the inaugural tournament being staged before the BDO version. The 1994 Championship started on Boxing Day 1993. This started a tradition for the WDC/PDC World Championship to kick off before the new calendar year begins. The tournament was staged at the Circus Tavern, Purfleet, Essex.
Originally 16 players "defected" from the BDO to form the WDC/PDC - Phil Taylor, Dennis Priestley, Rod Harrington, Alan Warriner, Peter Evison, Richie Gardner, Jocky Wilson, Eric Bristow, Keith Deller, John Lowe, Bob Anderson, Cliff Lazarenko, Kevin Spiolek, Jamie Harvey, Mike Gregory and Chris Johns.
However Johns and Gregory returned to the BDO without ever competing at the PDC World Championship. They were replaced with Graeme Stoddart and Kevin Burrows and the field was brought up to 24 by adding seven players from North America and Tom Kirby of Ireland.