The 2011 Skybet World Matchplay was the 18th annual staging of the World Matchplay, organised by the

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the World ...

. The tournament took place from 16–24 July 2011. It was sponsored by Skybet (who had previously sponsored the UK Open and the World Grand Prix) who took over from Stan James after 10 years. Phil Taylor successfully defended his title, defeating

James Wade James Martin Wade (born 6 April 1983) is an English professional darts player, currently playing in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). He became the youngest player to win a major PDC title, when he won the 2007 World Matchplay at the ...

18–8 in the final to win his twelfth World Matchplay crown and his fourth in successive years. In the quarter-final, Andy Hamilton produced a remarkable comeback. Trailing 8–15 to Simon Whitlock and only one leg from defeat, Hamilton won nine consecutive legs to advance to the semi-finals. John Part recorded his first and only televised

nine-dart finish A nine-dart finish, also known as a nine-darter, is a perfect leg or single game in the sport of darts. The object of the game is to score a set number of points, most commonly 501; in order to win, a player must reach the target total exactly an ...

, and the third in Matchplay history, in his first-round defeat to Mark Webster. The 2011 World Matchplay is notable for being the last darts tournament on Sky Sports where long-time commentator, Sid Waddell, commentated full-time. He was diagnosed with bowel cancer in September 2011, underwent treatment, and made a brief return to the commentary box during the

2012 Premier League Darts The 2012 McCoy's Premier League Darts was a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation; the eighth edition of the tournament. The event began at the Manchester Arena in Manchester on 9 February, and ended at The O2 Arena ...

. Waddell died from the bowel cancer on the 11 August 2012, the day after his 72nd birthday.

Prize money

For the third consecutive World Matchplay, the prize fund was £400,000.

Qualification

The top 16 in the PDC Order of Merit qualified automatically and were also seeded players. The other 16 places went to the top 16 non-qualified players from the Players Championships Order of Merit. These were the participants:

PDC Top 16

# Phil Taylor (winner) # Adrian Lewis ''(semi-finals)'' #

''(runner-up)'' # Gary Anderson ''(first round)'' # Simon Whitlock ''(quarter-finals)'' #

Raymond van Barneveld Raymond van Barneveld (born 20 April 1967) is a Dutch professional darts player. Nicknamed Barney, although originally known as The Man, he is one of the most successful darts players in history. Van Barneveld is a five-time World Darts Champ ...

''(quarter-finals)'' #

Terry Jenkins Terry Jenkins (born 26 September 1963) is an English former professional darts player who was nicknamed The Bull, having previously used the name "Tucker" for his matches. He reached number three in the world rankings and was a runner-up in nin ...

''(first round)'' # Wes Newton ''(quarter-finals)'' # Mervyn King ''(first round)'' # Mark Webster ''(quarter-finals)'' # Paul Nicholson ''(second round)'' # Ronnie Baxter ''(first round)'' #

Colin Lloyd Colin Edward Lloyd (born 7 August 1973), nicknamed Jaws, is an English retired professional darts player. He is a former world number one ranked player and has won two major television titles in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) – the ...

''(first round)'' # Mark Walsh ''(second round)'' # Vincent van der Voort ''(second round)'' # Wayne Jones ''(second round)''

PDPA Players Championship qualifiers

# John Part ''(first round)'' # Andy Smith ''(first round)'' # Jamie Caven ''(first round)'' # Justin Pipe ''(second round)'' # Dave Chisnall ''(first round)'' # Peter Wright ''(first round)'' # Alan Tabern ''(first round)'' # Mark Hylton ''(first round)'' # Steve Brown ''(first round)'' # Denis Ovens ''(second round)'' # John Henderson ''(second round)'' # Kevin Painter ''(first round)'' # Scott Rand ''(first round)'' # Colin Osborne ''(first round)'' # Steve Beaton ''(second round)'' # Andy Hamilton ''(semi-finals)''

Draw

Scores after player's names are three-dart averages (total points scored divided by darts thrown and multiplied by 3)

Statistics

Broadcasters

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the tournament was broadcast by Sky Sports for the 18th consecutive time.
In the Netherlands,

RTL7 RTL 7 is a Dutch free-to-cable television channel that was launched as ''Veronica'' on 1 September 1995. RTL 7 is RTL Nederland's "men's channel" with action films, reality television about crime and professions, soccer, motorsport and talk sho ...

broadcast the tournament for the very first time through an internet livestream, and in highlights on Friday, Saturday and Sunday on television.
The tournament was broadcast in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

for the first time with Fox Sports.

References

{{2011 in PDC darts World Matchplay (darts) World Matchplay Darts World Matchplay Darts