The 2007 BDO World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2007 Lakeside World Professional Darts Championship) was the 30th World Championship organised by the British Darts Organisation (BDO), and the 22nd to be held at the Lakeside Country Club, Frimley Green, Surrey. It ran from 6–14 January 2007.
Ahead of the tournament, the BDO announced a new stage set and player walk-on area. The markers – the two officials who manually calculated player scores – were replaced by on-stage plasma television screens. Thus, the only official on stage was the referee/caller.
The defending champion, Jelle Klaasen, who was unseeded after a poor season, lost in straight sets in the first round to fellow Dutchman Co Stompé. This was the first tournament since 1994 without four-time winner Raymond van Barneveld, who had switched to the rival Professional Darts Corporation soon after losing to Klaasen in the previous year's BDO final, the first time that a finalist from one World Championship had played in the other World Championship the following year, in direct contravention of the 1997 Tomlin Order. The day after the final, Klaasen himself also defected to the PDC, along with two other Dutch players, Michael van Gerwen and Vincent van der Voort (both of whom had also lost in the first round).
Martin Adams, the number 1 seed and long known as the nearly man at the World Championships, as the 2005 losing finalist and a three-time beaten semi-finalist, won the title. Phill Nixon, an unfancied qualifier and 150–1 outsider, also progressed to the final. Adams led 6–0 in the best-of-13-sets final, only for Nixon to mount a comeback and level the match at 6–6, before Adams finally won the deciding set.
In the women's tournament, Trina Gulliver maintained her unbeaten record as she won her seventh successive final. However, she needed a sudden-death leg to defeat Francis Hoenselaar. This was the fourth time in succession, and fifth overall, that Hoenselaar had lost in the final.
Pre-Tournament Odds The odds before the tournament began (supplied by official on-site bookmakers, Coral)
Michael van Gerwen 9–4 Martin Adams 4–1 Gary Anderson 8–1 Jelle Klaasen 10–1 Mervyn King 16–1 Mark Webster 20–1 Simon Whitlock 25–1 Ted Hankey 25–1Vincent van der Voort 28–1 Shaun Greatbatch 33–1 Co Stompe 33–1 Darryl Fitton 33–1 Martin Atkins 40–1 Andy Fordham 40–1 Niels de Ruiter 40–1 Mike Veitch 40–1Tony Eccles 50–1 John Walton 50–1 Tony O'Shea 50–1 Paul Hanvidge 50–1 Martin Phillips 66–1 Goran Klemme 66–1 Gary Robson 66–1 Brian Woods 80–1Paul Hogan 80–1 Mario Robbe 80–1 Brian Sorensen 100–1 Gary Fenn 100–1 Paul Gibbs 100–1 Davy Richardson 100–1 Phill Nixon 150–1 Albertino Essers 150–1
Seeds Men Martin Adams Gary Anderson Michael van Gerwen Tony Eccles Mervyn King Simon Whitlock Darryl Fitton Ted Hankey Vincent van der Voort Martin Atkins Niels de Ruiter Mike Veitch Shaun Greatbatch John Walton Paul Hanvidge Co Stompé
Women Trina Gulliver Francis Hoenselaar Karin Krappen Anastasia Dobromyslova
Prize money The prize money was £224,000 for the men's event and £11,000 for the women's event.
Men's Champion: £70,000 Runner-Up: £30,000 Semi-finalists (2): £11,000 Quarter-finalists (4): £6,000 Last 16 (8): £4,250 Last 32 (16): £2,750
Women's Champion: £6,000 Runner-Up: £2,000 Semi-finalists (2): £1,000 Quarter-finalists (4): £500
There was also a shared 9 Dart Checkout prize of £52,000, along with a High Checkout prize of £2,000 per event.
Television coverage The tournament was covered by the BBC in the UK and SBS6 in the Netherlands. Eurosport also broadcast the event on a pan-European basis, but the contract excluded them from showing the tournament to UK viewers.
The viewing figures for the final in the UK were 3.3 million (0.32 million down on 2006). BARB – UK television ratings The Dutch audience for the final was 1,201,000. Dutch TV viewing figures
Draw and results
Men's
Match distances in sets are quoted in brackets at the top of each round. All sets best of five legs, unless there is a final set tie-break
Q – qualifier Andy Fordham withdrew from his first round match due to ill health
Women
Tournament Review Day One Saturday 6 January Jelle Klaasen's defence of his world championship ended in the first round with a defeat by fellow Dutchman, Co Stompé. Klaasen, who had a difficult year since his victory over Raymond van Barneveld in last year's final was ranked lower than his opponent and lost in straight sets. It was the sixth time that a champion failed to win his opening match on the defence of the title. Stompé's victory was his first at the tournament since 2002 – having lost in the first round at the last five attempts.
Davy Richardson won his first match fourteen years after his first attempt. He had lost in the first round in 1993 (to Steve Beaton), 1999 (to Co Stompé), 2001 (to Jez Porter), 2002 (to Wayne Mardle) and 2005 (to Martin Adams) but his bad run ended with a victory over number nine seed Vincent van der Voort.
No problems for top seed Martin Adams and other seeded players Mervyn King, Ted Hankey and Mike Veitch who all earned places in the second round with straight sets victories.
Day Two Sunday 7 January The second day produced a series of shocks as the bookmaker's pre-tournament favourite for the title, Michael van Gerwen lost to Gary Robson. The 17-year-old World Masters champion was 9/4 favourite for the title, but found himself trailing through most of the match. Gerwen shown some signs of the form that took him number three in the world, but his night could be summed up by his start to match. He took the first leg against the darts, then hit three single ones to start the next leg. The inconsistently plagued him throughout the match as did his sponsors logo on his shirt which he had to keep pushing back into place. Robson, winner of the 2005 World Darts Trophy missed darts in the final set to clinch the match but finally hit a double four in the eighth leg to seal the win.
Earlier in the day the shocks started with Gary Anderson and Darryl Fitton making early exits. Albertino Essers, a Dutchman who had suffered from dartitis in recent years, ended second seed Anderson's hopes with a 3–2 win.
Fitton, who made his trademark entrance dancing to Madness hit One Step Beyond..., took the first set against qualifier Phill Nixon but then lost nine consecutive legs to go down 3–1. Nixon, making his debut in the tournament at the age of 50, hit checkouts of 121 and 110 as he refused to allow the seventh seed any way back into the match.
Tony Eccles, seeded four but a 50/1 outsider for the title beat promising Welshman Mark Webster in straight sets. Webster failed to show the form that took him to a Europe Cup singles title and like van Gerwen earlier in the evening, his tournament debut ended in defeat.
Day Three Monday 8 January Day three's play was overshadowed by the withdrawal from the tournament by 2004 champion Andy Fordham. Fordham, who had had health problems for some time, suffered breathing difficulties as a result of a chest infection and was taken to hospital from the venue. His scheduled opponent, Australia's Simon Whitlock, thus received a walkover into the second round. It was the first time a player had withdrawn from a match since the 1979 World Championship, when Alan Evans pulled out of the third-place play-off, also due to ill health.
When play started, the three seeded players in action all progressed to the last 16, but John Walton and Paul Hanvidge had struggles on their hands, both going through 3–2. Walton, the 2001 champion, was taken to a tie-break in the final set by Brian Sørensen, before finally winning 5 legs to 3. Meanwhile, an emotional Hanvidge defeated his good friend, Martin Phillips, and then dedicated the victory to his mother, who had died on Christmas Day.
Day Four Tuesday 9 January The second round of the tournament got underway with the first four matches from the top half of the draw. This half had seen few shocks in terms of the seedings, with only the number 9 seed, Vincent van der Voort, losing in the first round. The trend continued in the second round as Martin Adams (seeded 1), Tony Eccles (4), Mervyn King (5) and Ted Hankey (8) all made it to the quarter-finals. Out of the four, Hankey had the most difficulty in progressing: he was 2–0 and 3–2 down against Davy Richardson, before a maximum 170 checkout at the start of the final set finally swung the match in his favour. Richardson had been battling the pain of broken ribs in the tournament.
King's opponent, Mike Veitch, complained that he had been put off by King shouting whilst he retrieved his darts from the board. Nonetheless, King secured a quarter-final meeting with Eccles, while Hankey set up a clash with Adams.
Day Five Wednesday 10 January Unseeded Gary Robson came from 3–1 behind to defeat 2001 champion John Walton and reach the quarter-finals. This guaranteed a first-time finalist from the bottom half of the draw. His opponent would be Dutchman Niels de Ruiter, who also needed a deciding set to beat number 6 seed Simon Whitlock.
Phill Nixon, a first-time qualifier at the age of 50, followed up his victory over number 7 seed Darryl Fitton with a 4–1 win against number 10 seed Martin Atkins. This set up a quarter-final with number 15 seed Paul Hanvidge, who beat Albertino Essers 4–1.
Day Six Thursday 11 January Day six saw the first two quarter-finals settled, as top seed Martin Adams saw off 2000 champion Ted Hankey 5–3 while Mervyn King beat Tony Eccles 5–4. King hit ten 180s in his match while coming from 3–0 behind, before revealing in his post-match interview that he had nearly walked out of the tournament in response to speculation about a possible switch to the PDC. He said, "I nearly packed my darts away and went home. You nearly didn't have a quarter-final. It was that close."
Meanwhile, Adams took the first two sets, before Hankey levelled at 2–2 and 3–3. "The Count" then narrowly missed a 138 checkout which would have given him the seventh set, and Adams responded by taking that set and breaking the throw in the eighth. He then missed seven darts for victory, before finally sealing it with a double five. By coincidence, Adams had beaten Hankey by the same scoreline at the same stage two years previously.
Day Seven Friday 12 January The semi-final line-up was completed with the conclusion of the quarter-finals. Both games went to the final set with Niels de Ruiter maintaining the Dutch interest in the event, defeating Gary Robson. Robson took the first two sets, then de Ruiter hit two 13, one 14 and one 15 dart leg in his comeback to level.
The deciding leg of the fifth set was amongst the highest standard leg in the history of the tournament. Robson opened with 140, then de Ruiter hit his 5th 180 of the match. Robson's 140 was followed with another 180 leaving a nine-dart opportunity. Robson's ton left 121 and when de Ruiter missed the nine-darter and left himself on 36 for a ten-dart finish, Robson checked out the 121 to go 3–2 up in sets. He took the next set as well but de Ruiter battled back again to level. Robson hit a bullseye and a double 16 to save the match twice in the final set but de Ruiter's sixth dart for the match (at double 18) secured the win.
Phill Nixon, the 150–1 outsider at the start of the tournament, progressed to the semi-final with a narrow 5–4 win over Scotland's Paul Hanvidge. Nixon looked to be coasting to the last four when he led 4–1 but then missed six darts for the match and allowed Hanvidge the chance to get back into it. Nixon hit a 105 finish in the fourth leg of the final set to finally close out the match.