The 1994 Proton Cars World Matchplay was the inaugural staging of the World Matchplay darts tournament, and was held in the Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool from 1 to 8 August 1994.
This was the first World Matchplay tournament to be held at Winter Gardens, and was sponsored by Malaysian automaker Proton. The tournament was won by Larry Butler, who became the first, and so far only player from the United States of America to win a PDC televised title. He defeated the reigning WDC world champion Dennis Priestley in the final; Priestley would go on to lose the next two World Matchplay finals in addition to this.
The second round match between Jim Watkins and Keith Deller went into a tiebreak at 7–7 in legs, and finished with Watkins winning 18–16, meaning that 20 of the 34 legs of the match were within the tiebreak itself.
Prize money The prize fund was £42,400.
Position (no. of players) Prize money(Total: £42,400)Winner (1) £10,000Runner-Up (1) £6,000Third place (1) £3,250Fourth place (1) £2,750Quarter-finalists (4) £1,500Second round (8) £800First round (16) £500
Seeds Dennis Priestley Peter Evison Bob Anderson Steve Brown Rod Harrington Sean Downs Cliff Lazarenko Kevin Spiolek
Results
References