MFI World Matchplay
| MFI World Matchplay | |
|---|---|
| Tournament information | |
| Venue | Fulcrum Centre, Slough (1984-85), Festival Hall, Basildon (1986-88) |
| Country |
 England |
| Established | 1984 |
| Organisation(s) | WDF Major (5 editions) |
| Format | Sets |
| Final Year | 1988 |
| Final champion(s) | |
|
Eric Bristow
|
|
The MFI World Matchplay championship is a former major darts tournament.
The tournament was short-lived but historic in darts as it featured the first ever televised nine dart finish on 13 October 1984 when John Lowe won £102,000 for the perfect game of darts against Keith Deller. Lowe went on to win the title that year.
The complete list of final results:
John Lowe threw the first ever televised nine dart finish on 13 October 1984 against Keith Deller.
The tournament was broadcast on ITV and came from originally came from The Fulcrum Centre, Slough, before moving to Festival Hall, Basildon. The tournament ceased after the 1988 tournament due to ITV announcing that they were pulling out of darts coverage altogether. ITV broadcast the 1988 World Masters before leaving the BBC as the only broadcaster of darts from 1989 to 1991. ITV didn't return to tournament darts coverage until they broadcast the 4 WDC UK Matchplay tournaments from 1993 to 1996, tournaments which featured a quadro dart board, where each number from 1-20 also had a quadruple slot for 4 times the number. ITV regional channels also showed events like the Lada UK Masters (Anglia Television) and the Samson Classic (Tyne-Tees Television). In 1999, ITV broadcast the head to head showdown at Wembley between Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld, and returned to tournament darts coverage with the Grand Slam of Darts tournament in 2007.
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