2003 PDC World Darts Championship
| Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament information | |||
| Dates | 27 December 2002–4 January 2003 | ||
| Venue | Circus Tavern | ||
| Location | Purfleet, Essex | ||
| Country | England, United Kingdom | ||
| Organisation(s) | PDC | ||
| Format |
Sets Final – best of 13 |
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| Prize fund | £200,000 | ||
| Winners share | £50,000 | ||
| High checkout |
170  Les Fitton Roland Scholten
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| Champion(s) | |||
 John Part
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The 2003 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the tenth World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it split from the British Darts Organisation in 1993. Ladbrokes (who sponsored the 1996 event with their Vernon's brand) took over sponsorship of the event from Skol.
The field at the televised stages expanded for the first time since 1999. An extra qualifying round was introduced increasing the total number of players from 32 to 40. John Part defeated the defending champion and number one seed, Phil Taylor, in the final to end two incredible runs by Taylor - eight successive World titles, and 44 successive victories at the Circus Tavern.
This was Part's second world championship having also won the 1994 BDO Championship (the first tournament after the split).
All matches are the best of 7 sets.
Highest three-dart checkout: 170 Roland Scholten, Les Fitton.
Tournament 180s scored: 277 in 818 legs
Most 180s scored, individual: 27 John Part, 22 Phil Taylor, 18 Richie Burnett [1]
Steve Brown, the 1994 World Championship Semi-Finalists would become the first man through to the draw proper with a 4-2 win over David Platt. Platt a wild-card who had qualified via a competition in the People Newspaper, - one of the tournaments key partners didn't disgrace himself at all, and when leading 2-0 it looked good that he would move onto meet Phil Taylor in the second round. However Brown's experience told when he levelled the scores and would move through the next two sets to win.
Australian Simon Whitlock would also be in round two following a 4-2 win over Paul Williams. Having trailed 2-1, Whitlock won nine of the final 14 legs to book a date with number 6 seed and 2002 Finalist Peter Manley in round 2. Shayne Burgess, the former world no.3 who had recovered after a disastrous run of form in 2001 and 2002 including a 10-0 loss to Taylor in the World Matchplay 2002 would also move on to the second round following a 4-2 win over Arjan Moen, who had been toe-to-toe at 2-2.
Wayne Mardle, the new boy to the PDC circuit having been in the Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals of the BDO event would also begin clinically, dropping 2 legs as he swept aside American Ray Carver by 4 sets to 0.
Also going into round 2 on the first day in Purfleet was Reg Harding, one of the perennial qualifiers who never seems to get beyond the opening round, - this time he did, just! Mark Robinson took a commanding 3-0 lead against Harding before the Englishman fought back, sneaking the sixth set 3-2 to draw level at 3-3. The decider would go all the way as Harding moved on to a match with 14th seed Kevin Painter in the second round, Mark Holden would also go through in the 7th set, beating Leeds' Dave Smtih 3-1 in the deciding set.
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