2003 BDO World Darts Championship
| Embassy World Darts Championship | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament information | |||
| Dates | 4–12 January 2003 | ||
| Venue | Lakeside Country Club | ||
| Location | Frimley Green, Surrey | ||
| Country | England, United Kingdom | ||
| Organisation(s) | BDO | ||
| Format |
Sets Finals: best of 11 (men's) |
||
| Prize fund | £205,000 | ||
| Winners share | £50,000 | ||
| High checkout |
170  Erik Clarys
|
||
| Champion(s) | |||
 Raymond van Barneveld
|
|||
|
|||
| Embassy World Darts Championship | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament information | |||
| Dates | 4–12 January 2003 | ||
| Venue | Lakeside Country Club | ||
| Location | Frimley Green, Surrey | ||
| Country | England, United Kingdom | ||
| Organisation(s) | BDO | ||
| Format |
Sets Finals: best of 3 (women's) |
||
| Prize fund | £10,000 | ||
| Winners share | £4,000 | ||
| Champion(s) | |||
 Trina Gulliver
|
|||
|
|||
The 2003 Embassy World Professional Darts Championship was held between 4–12 January 2003 at the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey. Notably, it was the last World Championship to be sponsored by Imperial Tobacco.
In the final, Raymond van Barneveld came up against Wales's Ritchie Davies who had whitewashed defending champion, Tony David, in the quarter-finals. Barneveld raced into a four sets to nil lead before Davies pulled back to 4-3, but the Dutchman held his nerve to take the final two sets and thus seal his third World title.
Men
The prize money was £199,000 for the men's event and £10,000 for the women's event.
There was also a shared 9 Dart Checkout prize of £52,000, along with a High Checkout prize of £2,000 per event.
Women
The prize money was £10,000 for the women's event.
Reigning champion and number 1 seed Tony David got his defence of the World Championship underway with a fairly comfortable win over Dane Brian Sorenson by 3-1. The reigning champion having swept to the top of the World rankings following victory in the World Darts Trophy looked comfortable in averaging 92.7 for the first round. He would meet Dutchman Vincent van der Voort who also won 3-1 against Finland's Jarrko Komula. Also safely through the first round were seeds John Walton (3-2 over Martin Phillips) and Andy Fordham (3-0 over Stefan Nagy). Also in the men's draw Richie Davies of Wales and Gary Anderson would go through, starting their quite remarkable runs this year.
In the ladies event top seed Francis Hoensellaar was taken to the final set against Karin Krappen before triumphing 2-1. She would meet 2001 World Master and number 4 seed Anne Kirk would comfortably advance with a 2-0 win over Gaynor Williams of Wales.
Eight more first round matches over the two events as the Embassy World Championship began to gather its momentum. Bob Taylor, who made his championship debut in 1990 advanced to the second round following a comfortable 3-0 win over Peter Hunt of New Zealand, however with just 0.03 between their averages the match could easily have been a different story. Perennial bridesmaid at the World Championship Martin Adams would begin his quest for the title with a 3-1 one win over 2000 Semi-Finalist Co Stompe in a difficult match to call. Then a surprise followed in John Burtons 3-1 win over Darryl Fitton.
...
Wikipedia