2007 UK Open Darts
| Blue Square UK Open | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament information | |||
| Dates | 7–10 June 2007 | ||
| Venue | Reebok Stadium | ||
| Location | Bolton | ||
| Country | England | ||
| Organisation(s) | PDC | ||
| Format | Legs Final – best of 31 |
||
| Prize fund | £150,000 | ||
| Winners share | £30,000 | ||
| Nine dart finish |
 Phil Taylor
|
||
| Champion(s) | |||
 Raymond van Barneveld
|
|||
|
|||
The 2007 Blue Square UK Open was the fifth year of the PDC darts tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competed in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion. Blue Square took over as title sponsor after Budweiser's three-year deal expired.
There were two changes being introduced this year where a tournament bracket was introduced from the quarter-final stage to prevent players being forced into playing long back-to-back matches. Previously there had been a random draw after each round and the tournament had earned the nickname the "FA Cup of darts" as a result. The number of players was expanded from 128 to 168 for the 2007 tournament, but due to players tied on 168th position in the Order of Merit the starting field was 176 players.
Collated results from later stages:-
Random draws were made after each round up to the quarter final stage; draw bracket has been compiled retrospectively.
The first round was played on Thursday and featured 81 players competing for a place in the second round. Winmau World Masters champion Michael van Gerwen, playing his first match on Sky Television in the UK, beat 37-year-old Chris McTernan a pub qualifier from Bacup. Former World Champion Richie Burnett and Cliff Lazarenko also played on the opening day - both progressing to the second round.
There were very few shocks on day two of the tournament, although former world champions Bob Anderson and Keith Deller, who were both struggling for form, were both knocked out. Cliff Lazarenko's run in the event ended in the third round. The draw for the fourth round, featuring the top 32 players in the world was staged at the end of Friday's play.
64 players remained when matches got underway on Saturday afternoon, after a late night on Friday. Raymond Barneveld would book a place in Round 5 with an 11-1 win over John "Mr. Magoo" MaGowan, who he defeated 11-7 in the Semi-Finals twelve months ago. It was a different story against John Part with less doubles hit for Barney (compared to 80% against MaGowan). Part led 10-9, but van Barneveld squeezed through to hit double 16 and edge a great match 11-10.
...
Wikipedia