2004 UK Open

The 2004 Budweiser UK Open was the second time the Professional Darts Corporation held the tournament which had quickly earned the nickname the "FA Cup of Darts". It was held at Bolton Wanderer's Reebok Stadium between 4 and 6 June 2004. Budweiser became the tournament's first title sponsor.Roland Scholten won the title and the tournament featured Phil Taylor's second televised nine dart finish during his fourth round win over Matt Chapman. It is notable for marking the TV Debuts of Adrian Lewis and Andy Hamilton

128 players started the chase for the title with the lower ranked players. The competition had earned the nickname, "The FA Cup of Darts" by the nature of its random draw for each round - and there was the extraordinary pairing of former world champions John Lowe against Keith Deller in the first round. Lowe, who had been missing several tournaments on the circuit at the time opted to withdraw from the event so Deller received a bye into round two.

Alex Roy showed the worst of his form and temperament against James "Odd Job" Barton, an electrical tester from Bradford. Barton edged Roy out 5-4. Richie Burnett was very poor against Eamon Davies who comfortably beat the Welshman 5-3. Rod Harrington hadn't qualified for a televised tournament for a year and even though his darts were now not falling out of the board, he narrowly lost out to Bedfordshire's Derek Hunt 5-4.

Alan Green took out another known face, Leeds player Dave Smith 5-4 and 'The Horse' Reg Harding was also going home early, as was last year's finalist Shayne Burgess who lost 5-2 to Lee Rose. Mick Manning lost 5-1 to Graham Stoddart and Cliff Lazarenko stormed through to round two courtesy of a 5-1 win over Andrew Davies. Dennis Harbour beat the only lady in the competition Deta Hedman 5-2 and Dutchman Jan van der Rassel started strongly by beating Steve Ritchie 5-1.

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