Background The
Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) was established under the World Darts Council name by the managers John Markovic, Tommy Cox and Dick Allix and the
world's top 16 players in January 1992 as a separate body from the
British Darts Organisation (BDO). The
PDC World Darts Championship was first held in 1994 and is one of two
world championships in the game of
darts: the other being the
BDO World Darts Championship. The 2002 tournament was held between 28 December 2001 and 5 January 2002 in
Purfleet,
Essex, and was the first of 30 PDC-sanctioned events in the 2002 season. It was the ninth edition of the tournament and featured a 32-player main draw that was played at the
Circus Tavern. , where the tournament was held A total of 31 players automatically qualified for the main draw with 16 of them
seeded.
Alan Warriner was seeded first and
Phil Taylor was the second seed. The remaining place was decided by a play-off round contested by members of the
Professional Dart Players Association at the Beaufort Arms,
Birmingham on 8 December 2001. making his debut and only appearance at the tournament. Six more players debuted in the competition:
Ronnie Baxter,
Steve Beaton,
Andy Jenkins,
Chris Mason,
Kevin Painter and
Paul Williams after they moved to the PDC from the BDO. The maximum number of
sets contested in a match increased from seven in the first round to eleven from the second round to the semi-finals, leading up to the final which was played as best-of-thirteen sets. the tournament had a total prize fund of £205,000, Taylor said he had practised heavily to prepare for the tournament after he lost to Painter in the first round of the
World Grand Prix: "I'm hungrier than I've ever been, so all those players who feel I can be beaten are going to be shown I am out to win and no one will be in my way. I have been doing loads of practice, three or four hours a day. I'm feeling good." Warriner won the first two sets before Harding took sets three and five for a 3–2 scoreline. He beat Harding 3–2 in the sixth set to win the match. Warriner said afterwards that his performance was inadequate. Lim won only three legs during the match. a game which saw Evison fail to complete a
nine-dart finish in the first leg of the third set after one of his darts landed less than away from the
double 18 outer ring. The Irish Masters champion
Denis Ovens converted a two-set deficit to Jenkins to force a final set decider which he won to claim a 4–3 victory. In his 25th world championship appearance,
John Lowe came from one set against
Les Fitton to win four sets in a row. Lowe finished on the double nine outer ring to win 4–1.
Shayne Burgess defeated
Jamie Harvey 4–3; trailing 2–1 Burgess took the first two legs of set four and another three to equal the scoreline. He then took the next set before Harvey forced a final set decider. Checkouts of 111 and 85 put Burgess ahead until Harvey reduced his advantage. Harvey then missed five dart throws to land in an outer double ring and Burgess won the match. Another 4–3 victory occurred when
Steve Beaton defeated
Bob Anderson after leading 3–1 and Anderson won two sets in a row. After winning the sixth set, Beaton forced a final set decider, which he won 5–3. Taylor achieved a three-dart average of 98.2 points in defeating
Paul Williams 4–1. World number three
Rod Harrington beat
Keith Deller, the
1983 world champion, 4–3. Tied 2–2, Harrington argued with Deller about a perceived positioning of Deller's left leg in retrieving his darts from the board and the time it took to do so. Deller won the fifth set with a finish on the outer double 16 ring. Harrington took the sixth set to force a final set decider, which he won on a 58 checkout. Harrington kicking Deller was the catalyst for the creation of the exclusion zone, an area that players are not allowed to enter when their opponent is in action.
Round 2 (pictured in 2009) was eliminated in the second round of the tournament The second round was played to the best-of-11 sets from 30 December 2000 and 2 January 2001. Baxter took a little more than one hour to beat Smith 6–1. He claimed the first set and Smith the second. Baxter's higher finishing average won him six consecutive legs in the middle of the game en route to victory. Manley defeated Lowe 6–5. He took the lead in set one before Lowe claimed the second with a 121 checkout. Lowe won sets three and four to take the lead until Manley nullified this to tie the match. The game went to a final set decider which Manley won 3–0. After the match, Manley said he had not expected a strong performance from Lowe. Winning nine consecutive legs for the third, fourth and fifth set, Taylor averaged 124.10 in those three sets, including two sets finished in 35 darts each, averaging 128.83 in each of them. Askew overcame a challenge from Scholten to win 6–3. Both players equalled each other's form before Askew moved ahead with victories in the fifth and sixth sets. Scholten subsequently made a 13-dart finish to claim set seven before Askew replied to win the next two sets and the match. Part compiled ten
maximum scores (180), checkouts of 116 and 117 and achieved a three-dart average of 98.68 points to complete a 6–0 whitewash of Beaton. The final second round match saw Priestley play the two time
World Matchplay champion Harrington. After both players began at a slow pace with Harrington compiling high scores and missing checkouts and Priestley making checkouts without high scores, the latter took the lead in the match and a 6–3 victory after Harrington failed to complete a 169 checkout. Lloyd said post-match that he was surprised over his early lead: "I've played good darts in the last three games but I've let them come back at me. But the main thing about my play this year is that I haven't let my head drop. They have come back at me but I've said 'keep fighting Lloydy' and you're going to get there. That's what's made the difference. I'm not going to give up." The second game had Askew take an early lead over Priestley until the latter won two sets in a row to lead 2–1. Askew then tied the match at 2–2 and took four more sets and made a 100 checkout to win 6–2. In the next quarter-final, pre-match favourite Baxter played Manley. The final match of the quarter-finals saw Taylor play Part in a rematch of the 2001 world championship final. Taylor took the first three sets before he achieved seven maximums and failed to complete a nine-dart finish in the fourth set when his eighth dart throw landed inside the single seven ring. He then completed a 6–0 whitewash of Part after he won two more sets and had achieved a three-dart average of 100.23 points; Part forced a final leg decider in the fifth and sixth sets before Taylor defeated him.
Semi-finals (pictured in 2007) reached the second world championship final of his career with a 6–4 win over
Colin Lloyd. Both of the semi-finals were best-of-11 sets on 4 January 2002. Manley won the first set and Lloyd the second from checkouts of 105, 137 and 46. Lloyd took the third set after Manley produced a 111 checkout from eleven darts thrown. Both players shared the following two sets; Manley took the fourth on the outer double ten ring and Lloyd the fifth from checkouts of 134 and 91. Manley won sets six and seven and Lloyd the eighth. Manley retook the lead after the ninth set and claimed a 6–4 victory after the final set went to a fifth leg which he won on the outer double eight ring. Lloyd made ten maximums to Manley's eight. Taylor subsequently won the next six legs to lead 3–0. Askew ended the streak by winning one leg in the fourth set as Taylor secured the set. Taylor then took sets five and six for a 6–1 win, only losing one leg in each of the final two sets. Taylor won the first set 3–0. He then was unable to convert eight more opportunities and Taylor's finishing allowed him to clinch set two 3–1. In the third set Taylor produced a 104 checkout and a 13-dart finish to win it 3–0. Taylor led the fourth set 2–0 when he failed to convert a 100 checkout and Manley won the third leg. He then responded to compile a 11-dart finish and take the set. Manley said he enjoyed playing in the final and complimented Taylor's ability: "I had some hard games to come through and I beat my mate Ronnie Baxter and he would probably have been a better player to beat Phil tonight. But Phil is the greatest player ever to walk the earth." Mel Webb of
The Times felt Taylor's number of world championships was unlikely to be eclipsed by other players bar Taylor himself: "Nobody, not even
Tiger Woods or
Don Bradman, has dominated his sport as overwhelmingly as Taylor does his." ==Prize fund==