2015 PDC World Darts Championship

The 2015 William Hill World Darts Championship was the 22nd World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event was held at the Alexandra Palace, London between 18 December 2014 and 4 January 2015.

2015 William Hill World Darts Championship
Tournament information
Dates18 December 2014 –
4 January 2015
VenueAlexandra Palace
LocationLondon
Country England
Organisation(s)PDC
FormatLegs (preliminaries)
Sets (from Round 1)
Final – best of 13
Prize fund£1,250,000
Winner's share£250,000
Nine-dart finish Adrian Lewis
High checkout170 Raymond van Barneveld
170 Michael Smith
170 Michael van Gerwen
Champion(s)
Gary Anderson
«2014 2016»

Michael van Gerwen was the defending champion, having won his first World Championship title in 2014, but he lost 6–3 to Gary Anderson in the semi-finals. Anderson won the title by beating 16-time World Champion Phil Taylor 7–6 in the final.

Adrian Lewis threw the event's only nine-dart finish in his third round match with Raymond van Barneveld. John Michael and Boris Koltsov became the first players from Greece and Russia respectively to play in the first round of a PDC World Championship. Cristo Reyes became the first Spanish player to reach the last 16 in the history of the event.

Format and qualifiers

The tournament featured 72 players. The top 32 players on the PDC Order of Merit on 2 December 2014 (after the Players Championship Finals) were seeded for the tournament. They were joined by the 16 highest non-qualified players from the Pro Tour Order of Merit, based on the events played on the 2014 PDC Pro Tour.

These 48 players were joined by two PDPA qualifiers (as determined at a PDPA Qualifying event held in Coventry on 1 December 2014), the highest ranked non-qualified player on the PDC Challenge Tour Order of Merit, and 21 international players: the four highest names on the European Order of Merit not already qualified, and 17 further international qualifiers determined by the PDC and PDPA. Some of the international players, such as the four from the European Order of Merit, and the top American and Australian players were entered straight into the first round, while others, having won qualifying events in their countries, were entered into the preliminary round.

The field was set on 1 December 2014.[1] John Michael became the first Greek player to play in the PDC World Championship.

Qualifiers
1^ Jarkko Komula, who finished second in the Scandinavian Order of Merit, was ineligible to play due to a suspension from the Finnish Darts Organisation. Kim Viljanen, who finished third, therefore replaced Komula.
2^ Ryan de Vreede qualified after Richie Burnett was removed from the field due to personal reasons. As a result, Stuart Kellett moved into the top 32 seeds and Rowby-John Rodriguez qualified through the Pro Tour instead of the European Tour.[2]

Prize money

The 2015 World Championship featured a prize fund of at least £1,250,000 - an increase of £200,000 from the 2014 tournament.[3]

The prize money is allocated as follows:

Position (num. of players) Prize Money
(Total: £1,250,000)
Winner (1) £250,000
Runner-Up (1) £120,000
Semi-finalists (2) £60,000
Quarter-finalists (4) £35,000
Third round losers (8) £18,000
Second round losers (16) £12,000
First round losers (32) £8,000
Preliminary round losers (8) £3,500
Nine-dart finish (1) £10,000

Results

Preliminary round

The preliminary round was played in a first to four legs format. One match was played per session with the winners playing their first round matches later on the same day. The draw was held on 30 November 2014, two days before the main draw.[4] Gurney achieved the highest average in the history of the Preliminary round.

Av. Player Score Player Av.
89.90 Ian Perez 0–4 Cristo Reyes 93.94
67.11 Kim Viljanen 1–4 Sascha Stein 91.30
93.76 Scott MacKenzie 3–4 Daryl Gurney 96.11
65.09 Mark McGrath 0–4 Scott Kirchner 83.50
79.27 Boris Koltsov 4–2 Haruki Muramatsu 75.69
83.77 Jani Haavisto 1–4 John Michael 94.82
84.68 Nolan Arendse 4–0 Alex Hon 79.22
82.77 Jermaine Wattimena 3–4 Robert Marijanović 76.36

Exhibition

The event also included a single-leg exhibition between two England cricket teammates – fast bowler James Anderson and opening batsman and Test captain Alastair Cook.[5]

Av. Player Score Player Av.
40.42 James Anderson 0-1 Alastair Cook 41.75

Last 64
First round (best of 5 sets)
18–23 December
[6][7][8][9][10][11] 		Second round (best of 7 sets)
27–29 December
[12][13][14] 		Third round (best of 7 sets)
29–30 December
[14][15] 		Quarter-finals (best of 9 sets)
1–2 January
[16][17] 		Semi-finals (best of 11 sets)
3 January
[18] 		Final (best of 13 sets)
4 January
[19]
                  
1 Michael van Gerwen 96.96 3
Joe Cullen 93.14 1
1 van Gerwen 99.87 4
Stein 89.09 1
32 Stuart Kellett 73.08 1
Sascha Stein 79.34 3
1 van Gerwen 99.62 4
16 Jenkins 96.92 1
16 Terry Jenkins 98.73 3
John Weber 79.86 1
16 Jenkins 96.45 4
Ryder 86.69 0
17 Justin Pipe 86.28 2
Laurence Ryder 83.59 3
1 van Gerwen 105.26 5
9 Thornton 101.49 2
8 Dave Chisnall 86.08 3
Ryan de Vreede 75.24 0
8 Chisnall 93.08 2
van de Pas 91.44 4
25 Paul Nicholson 85.49 2
Benito van de Pas 86.28 3
van de Pas 89.35 0
9 Thornton 96.50 4
9 Robert Thornton 97.65 3
Andrew Gilding 92.00 0
9 Thornton 93.78 4
24 Baxter 84.48 0
24 Ronnie Baxter 94.64 3
Daryl Gurney 88.78 1
1 van Gerwen 101.35 3
4 G. Anderson 102.20 6
5 Peter Wright 98.80 3
Gerwyn Price 93.90 0
5 Wright 95.52 4
R. Huybrechts 87.52 1
28 Andy Smith 86.66 0
Ronny Huybrechts 87.75 3
5 Wright 102.60 4
12 Hamilton 90.94 0
12 Andy Hamilton 91.09 3
Dave Richardson 86.04 2
12 Hamilton 90.06 4
K. Anderson 90.96 2
21 Steve Beaton 82.24 0
Kyle Anderson 85.99 3
5 Wright 95.66 1
4 G. Anderson 102.12 5
4 Gary Anderson 86.20 3
Scott Kirchner 86.21 1
4 G. Anderson 103.02 4
29 Klaasen 100.72 3
29 Jelle Klaasen 96.97 3
Christian Kist 93.63 1
4 G. Anderson 104.54 4
Reyes 98.52 1
13 Wes Newton 94.61 2
Cristo Reyes 93.47 3
Reyes 88.41 4
20 Painter 90.22 3
20 Kevin Painter 89.57 3
Boris Koltsov 78.14 1
4 G. Anderson 97.68 7
2 Taylor 100.69 6
2 Phil Taylor 100.57 3
Jyhan Artut 87.47 0
2 Taylor 101.92 4
31 M. Webster 93.09 0
31 Mark Webster 81.91 3
Ron Meulenkamp 77.78 1
2 Taylor 102.52 4
18 K. Huybrechts 96.93 3
15 Ian White 86.72 3
John Michael 81.02 1
15 White 93.94 3
18 K. Huybrechts 93.74 4
18 Kim Huybrechts 99.40 3
Mickey Mansell 87.65 0
2 Taylor 100.08 5
23 van der Voort 99.22 3
7 Simon Whitlock 87.29 1
Darren Webster 94.24 3
D. Webster 93.59 3
26 Winstanley 92.68 4
26 Dean Winstanley 93.66 3
Wayne Jones 94.01 2
26 Winstanley 91.36 2
23 van der Voort 93.90 4
10 Mervyn King 90.67 2
Max Hopp 96.60 3
Hopp 86.55 0
23 van der Voort 91.48 4
23 Vincent van der Voort 93.39 3
John Henderson 89.13 2
2 Taylor 102.39 6
14 van Barneveld 99.52 2
6 James Wade 97.14 3
Jamie Lewis 87.75 1
6 Wade 90.93 1
27 Bunting 93.38 4
27 Stephen Bunting 90.20 3
Robert Marijanović 86.82 1
27 Bunting 102.34 4
22 M. Smith 102.78 2
11 Brendan Dolan 90.18 3
Nolan Arendse 83.85 0
11 Dolan 92.89 2
22 M. Smith 98.90 4
22 Michael Smith 97.47 3
Mensur Suljović 98.91 1
27 Bunting 98.36 4
14 van Barneveld 98.37 5
3 Adrian Lewis 101.90 3
David Pallett 90.05 0
3 A. Lewis 100.41 4
Brown 93.09 2
30 John Part 84.78 2
Keegan Brown 88.07 3
3 A. Lewis 97.55 3
14 van Barneveld 92.23 4
14 Raymond van Barneveld 99.93 3
Rowby-John Rodriguez 79.22 0
14 van Barneveld 93.32 4
19 Caven 94.96 3
19 Jamie Caven 80.87 3
Jason Hogg 83.85 2

Final
Final: Best of 13 sets.
Referees: George Noble (first half) and Russ Bray (second half).
Alexandra Palace, London, England, 4 January 2015.
(4) Gary Anderson 7 – 6 Phil Taylor (2)
3 – 2, 2 – 3, 3 – 1, 3 – 1, 0 – 3, 0 – 3, 1 – 3, 3 – 2, 3 – 2, 3 – 1, 0 – 3, 2 – 3, 3 – 0
97.68 Average (3 darts) 100.69
19 180 scores 13
121 Highest checkout 141
39,39% (26/66) Checkout summary 32,93% (27/82)

Statistics
Player Eliminated Played Sets Won Sets Lost Legs Won Legs Lost 100+ 140+ 180s High Checkout Checkout Av.% Average[20]
Gary Anderson Winner 6 29 15 102 84 219 142 64 126 40 99.29
Phil Taylor Runner-up 6 28 15 99 75 234 135 36 141 41.42 101.36
Michael van Gerwen Semi-finals 5 19 11 75 62 146 108 43 170 42.37 100.61
Raymond van Barneveld Semi-finals 5 18 16 70 68 161 81 41 170 41.42 96.67
Peter Wright Quarter-finals 4 12 6 45 32 127 61 13 144 46.88 98.15
Robert Thornton Quarter-finals 4 13 5 47 31 106 65 29 156 39.17 97.36
Stephen Bunting Quarter-finals 4 15 9 53 41 121 75 24 161 40.46 96.07
Vincent van der Voort Quarter-finals 4 14 9 56 41 116 70 22 157 42.28 94.50
Adrian Lewis Third round 3 10 6 40 32 85 59 22 157 35.40 99.95
Michael Smith Third round 3 9 7 35 31 74 49 27 170 39.77 99.72
Terry Jenkins Third round 3 8 5 32 18 60 43 17 164 48.48 97.37
Kim Huybrechts Third round 3 10 7 36 34 87 40 10 146 34.95 96.69
Cristo Reyes Third round 4 8 9 39 40 97 59 17 142 43.33 93.47
Dean Winstanley Third round 3 9 9 41 37 98 57 22 136 40.59 92.57
Andy Hamilton Third round 3 7 8 30 28 71 33 9 116 41.67 90.70
Benito van de Pas Third round 3 7 8 28 32 79 36 10 127 31.82 89.02
Jelle Klaasen Second round 2 6 5 22 24 60 35 8 127 30.99 98.85
James Wade Second round 2 4 5 19 18 43 37 6 96 35.19 94.04
Darren Webster Second round 2 6 5 25 23 82 41 6 136 47.83 93.92
Brendan Dolan Second round 2 5 4 17 13 41 19 6 128 35.42 91.54
Max Hopp Second round 2 3 6 19 25 62 30 14 161 31.15 91.09
Keegan Brown Second round 2 5 6 26 21 54 32 9 124 37.68 90.58
Ian White Second round 2 6 5 24 20 51 32 13 113 35.82 90.33
Kevin Painter Second round 2 6 5 24 18 51 28 6 141 41.38 89.90
Dave Chisnall Second round 2 5 4 21 15 50 19 8 116 37.50 89.58
Ronnie Baxter Second round 2 3 5 15 19 36 15 7 106 31.91 89.56
Kyle Anderson Second round 2 5 4 19 18 41 27 6 156 35.19 88.48
Jamie Caven Second round 2 6 6 26 22 60 27 8 127 32.50 87.92
Ronny Huybrechts Second round 2 4 4 16 15 40 20 4 104 41.03 87.64
Mark Webster Second round 2 3 5 13 19 41 19 8 125 23.64 87.50
Sascha Stein Second round 3 4 5 22 21 61 28 7 120 34.92 84.77
Laurence Ryder Second round 2 3 6 10 19 38 21 3 101 30.30 85.14
Mensur Suljović First round 1 1 3 9 11 40 10 3 120 60.00 98.91
Wes Newton First round 1 2 3 13 13 38 18 4 130 34.21 94.61
Wayne Jones First round 1 2 3 8 12 19 24 4 68 40.00 94.01
Gerwyn Price First round 1 3 5 9 16 7 5 40 41.67 93.90
Christian Kist First round 1 1 3 7 9 21 8 3 136 46.67 93.63
Joe Cullen First round 1 1 3 9 11 27 15 4 161 47.37 93.14
Daryl Gurney First round 2 1 3 11 14 27 15 7 108 42.31 92.45
Andrew Gilding First round 1 3 2 9 18 8 1 56 20.00 92.00
Mervyn King First round 1 2 3 13 14 32 25 3 120 39.39 90.67
David Pallett First round 1 3 3 9 10 9 3 161 37.50 90.05
John Henderson First round 1 2 3 9 12 30 13 4 101 27.27 89.13
John Michael First round 2 1 3 10 11 35 12 2 120 52.63 87.92
Jamie Lewis First round 1 1 3 5 11 17 10 3 141 45.45 87.75
Michael Mansell First round 1 3 5 9 15 10 5 101 33.33 87.65
Jyhan Artut First round 1 3 2 9 11 9 1 95 33.33 87.47
Simon Whitlock First round 1 1 3 4 11 23 6 3 40 16.67 87.29
Andy Smith First round 1 3 2 9 16 9 2 75 14.29 86.66
Justin Pipe First round 1 2 3 7 10 22 9 2 116 29.17 86.28
Dave Richardson First round 1 2 3 6 11 15 7 7 96 35.29 86.04
Paul Nicholson First round 1 2 3 8 10 23 11 5 116 26.67 85.49
Scott Kirchner First round 2 1 3 12 9 25 14 2 124 31.58 84.86
John Part First round 1 2 3 6 12 21 8 1 115 31.58 84.78
Nolan Arendse First round 2 3 4 9 22 4 60 28.57 84.27
Jason Hogg First round 1 2 3 8 11 19 8 5 76 29.63 83.85
Steve Beaton First round 1 3 3 9 16 6 36 30.00 82.24
Robert Marijanović First round 2 1 3 7 13 21 7 4 52 25.93 81.59
John Weber First round 1 1 3 4 10 18 5 1 128 50.00 79.86
Rowby-John Rodriguez First round 1 3 2 9 11 4 1 40 18.18 79.22
Boris Koltsov First round 2 1 3 7 11 21 6 4 60 36.84 78.71
Ron Meulenkamp First round 1 1 3 7 9 21 12 1 60 18.92 77.78
Ryan de Vreede First round 1 3 3 9 15 1 2 56 27.27 75.24
Stuart Kellett First round 1 1 3 7 11 19 3 3 108 41.18 73.08
Scott MacKenzie Preliminary round 1 3 4 10 6 1 81 42.86 93.76
Christian Perez Preliminary round 1 4 6 1 2 – 0.00 89.90
Jani Haavisto Preliminary round 1 1 4 6 3 1 48 50.00 83.77
Jermaine Wattimena Preliminary round 1 3 4 12 3 64 20.00 82.77
Alex Hon Preliminary round 1 4 5 3 1 – 0.00 79.22
Haruki Muramatsu Preliminary round 1 2 4 12 2 56 20.00 75.69
Kim Viljanen Preliminary round 1 1 4 2 1 18 33.33 67.11
Mark McGrath Preliminary round 1 4 3 1 – 0.00 65.09

Representation from different countries

This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round.


ENG
NED
SCO
AUS
GER
WAL
NIR
BEL
AUT
CAN
FIN
HKG
SPA
CRO
GRE
RSA
RUS
USA
JPN
NZL
PHI		 Total
Final 1010000000000000000002
Semis 1210000000000000000004
Quarters 2330000000000000000008
Round 3 74300001000010000000016
Round 2 155322112000010000000032
Round 1 258553332220011111100064
Prelim. 01001010002211111111116
Total 259553332222211111111172

Broadcasting

The tournament was available in the following countries on these channels:[21]

Country Channel
United Kingdom
Ireland		Sky Sports †
NetherlandsRTL7
GermanySport1/Sport1+
DenmarkTV3 Sport1/TV3 Sport2
Australia
Italy		Fox Sports
New ZealandSky Sport (New Zealand)
RomaniaSport TV
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Hungary		Sport TV (Sport 1 and Sport2)
 Arab worldOSN
Bulgaria
Scandinavia
Baltic states		Viasat

† Sky Sports 3 was renamed as Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the tournament. The channel's coverage of the event was later named the Best Sports of Live Event Coverage at the Broadcast Digital Awards.[22]

References
  1. "William Hill World Champs Field". PDC. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  2. "PDC Statement: Richie Burnett". PDC. 1 December 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-12-13. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  3. "Record £1.25M Prize Fund Announced". PDC. 13 June 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  4. "World Championship Prelim Round Draw". PDC. 30 November 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  5. Alastair Cook v James Anderson - World Darts Championship, Alexandra Palace England and Wales Cricket Board on YouTube (originally broadcast by Sky Sports)
  6. "William Hill World Championship Day One". PDC. Archived from the original on 2014-12-18. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  7. "William Hill World Championship Day Two". PDC. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  8. "William Hill World Championship Day Three". PDC. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  9. "William Hill World Championship Day Four". PDC. Archived from the original on 2014-12-22. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  10. "William Hill World Championship Day Five". PDC. Archived from the original on 2014-12-22. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  11. "William Hill World Championship Day Six". PDC. Archived from the original on 2014-12-24. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  12. "William Hill World Championship Day Seven". PDC. Archived from the original on 2014-12-29. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  13. "William Hill World Championship Day Eight". PDC. Archived from the original on 2014-12-29. Retrieved 28 December 2014.
  14. "William Hill World Championship Day Nine". PDC. Archived from the original on 2014-12-29. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  15. "William Hill World Championship Day Ten". PDC. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  16. "William Hill World Championship Day 11". PDC. Archived from the original on 2015-01-02. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  17. "William Hill World Championship Day 12". PDC. Archived from the original on 2015-01-03. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  18. "William Hill World Championship Semis". PDC. Archived from the original on 2015-01-03. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  19. "William Hill World Championship Final". PDC. Archived from the original on 2015-01-05. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  20. "2014 PDC World Championship Stats". Darts Database. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
  21. "William Hill World Championship TV". PDC. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  22. "Broadcast Award For Sky Sports' Coverage". PDC. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
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