MFI World Matchplay

The MFI World Matchplay championship is a former major darts tournament.

For the current PDC major tournament, see World Matchplay (darts).
MFI World Matchplay
Tournament information
VenueFulcrum Centre, Slough (1984-85), Festival Hall, Basildon (1986-88)
CountryEngland
Established1984
Organisation(s)WDF Major (5 editions)
FormatSets
Final Year1988
Final champion(s)
Eric Bristow

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.

MFI World Matchplay finals

The complete list of final results:[1]

Year Champion (average in final) Score Runner-up (average in final) Prize money Sponsor Venue
Total Champion Runner-up
1984 John Lowe 5–3 Cliff Lazarenko £36,000 £12,000 £5,000 MFI Fulcrum Centre, Slough
1985 Eric Bristow 5–4 Bob Anderson £41,000 £15,000 £6,000
1986 Mike Gregory 5–1 Jocky Wilson £41,000 £15,000 £6,000 Festival Hall, Basildon
1987 Bob Anderson 5–1 John Lowe £47,400 £18,000 £7,000
1988 Eric Bristow (92.91) 5–1 Bob Sinnaeve (88.38) £52,000 £21,000 £7,500

Finalists
Rank Player Won Runner-up Finals
1 Eric Bristow 2 0 2
2 Bob Anderson 1 1 2
John Lowe 1 1 2
4 Mike Gregory 1 0 1
5 Cliff Lazarenko 0 1 1
Bob Sinnaeve 0 1 1
Jocky Wilson 0 1 1

Nine-dart finish

John Lowe threw the first ever televised nine-dart finish on 13 October 1984 against Keith Deller.

Player Year (+Round) Method Opponent Result Prize
John Lowe 1984, Quarter-Final 3 x T20; 3 x T20; T17, T18, D18 Keith Deller 3-1 £102,000

Media coverage

The tournament was broadcast on ITV and originally came from The Fulcrum Centre, Slough, before moving to Festival Hall, Basildon.[2] 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.

Sponsors
SponsorYears
MFI1984-88

References
  1. "MFI World Matchplay Winners". DartsDatabase. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  2. "Darts Results - MFI World Matchplay - Darts Mad". Retrieved 21 December 2015.
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