The 2022

Cazoo Cazoo is a British online car retailer based in London, England which was founded in 2018 by Alex Chesterman. History Cazoo was founded in 2018 by British internet entrepreneur Alex Chesterman. It launched an online marketplace for used cars in ...

UK Open The Cazoo UK Open is a ranking major darts tournament held annually at the Butlins Minehead Resort by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) in England. Often referred to as the "FA Cup of darts", the UK Open replicates the abolition of seedin ...

was a

darts Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, missiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dar ...

tournament staged 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 ...

. It was the twentieth year of the tournament where players compete in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion. The tournament returned to

Butlin's Minehead Butlins Resort Minehead is a holiday camp operated by Butlins, located in Minehead in Somerset, England. It opened in 1962 and remains in use today. It was known as Butlin's Minehead until 1987, and as Somerwest World from then until 1999, wh ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, between 4–6 March 2022, having been held behind closed doors at the

Marshall Arena The Marshall Arena (formerly known as Arena MK, also Milton Keynes Arena) is a multi-purpose arena in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, located beside Stadium MK. The multi-use event space is positioned over three floors and anticipates m ...

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

in 2021 owing to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

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 ...

was the defending champion after defeating

Luke Humphries Luke Humphries (born 11 February 1995) is an English professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He won the 2019 PDC World Youth Championship. Career Humphries won five PDC Development Tour titles in 20 ...

11–5 in the 2021 final, but he lost 10–4 to

Keane Barry Keane Neill Barry (born 25 June 2002) is an Irish professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and Youth Development Tour events. The highlight of his career was beating Conor Allen in a narrow 2-0 victory in a j ...

in the quarter-finals.

Danny Noppert Danny Noppert (born 31 December 1990) is a Dutch professional darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He is a former BDO World Darts Championship finalist, as well as being a Finder Darts Masters champion in 2017, ...

won his first PDC major tournament, beating Michael Smith 11–10 in the final after Smith had a dart for the title. Noppert's average of 84.82 was the lowest winning average in a straight start format in a PDC major, and the second-lowest winning average overall ahead of

Alan Warriner-Little Alan Warriner-Little (born Warriner; 24 March 1962) is an English former professional darts player. Nicknamed The Iceman, he is a former World Grand Prix champion and a former runner-up at the World Professional Darts Championship. Darts care ...

's 83.25 in the 2001 World Grand Prix. The tournament saw three

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 ...

es.

José Justicia José Antonio Justicia Perales (born 6 January 1989) is a Spanish darts player. Career Justicia started his career in 2009 and participated in PDPA Players Championship events in Gibraltar and Nuland. At the end of the year, he attempted to qu ...

hit the first in his third round game against Adam Gawlas. Defending champion

also hit one during his sixth round game against

Boris Krčmar Boris Krčmar (born 13 September 1979) is a Croatian professional steel-tip and soft-tip darts player who currently plays in the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He dominated soft-tip darts for over decade and won more than 400 profe ...

. Michael Smith hit another in his own sixth round game against

Mensur Suljović Mensur Suljović (Serbian Cyrillic: Менсур Суљовић; born 5 March 1972) is an Austrian professional darts player. He plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, having previously played in the British Darts Organisation (BD ...

Prize money

The prize fund remained at £450,000.

Format

The 160 participants entered the competition incrementally, with 64 players entering in the first round, with match winners joining the 32 players entering in the second and third rounds to leave the last 64 in the fourth round.
*No players are seeded. *A random draw is held for each of the following rounds following the conclusion of the Third round. *All matches in the First, Second and Third rounds will be played over best of 11 legs. *All matches in the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth rounds and Quarter-finals will be played over best of 19 legs. *All matches in the Semi-finals and Final will be played over best of 21 legs. *Eight boards will be used for matches in the First, Second, Third and Fourth rounds. *Four boards will be used for matches in the Fifth round. *Two boards will be used for matches in the Sixth round. *One board will be used for all the matches in the Quarter-finals, Semi-Finals and Final.

Qualifiers

The 128 Tour Card holders had a staggered entry based on their world ranking on 28 February 2022. They were joined by the top 4 players from each of the 2021 UK & European Challenge & Development Tour Orders of Merit, and by the winners of 16 Amateur Qualification events organised through Rileys Sports Bars.

Number 1–32 of the PDC Order of Merit (receiving byes into Fourth Round)

Number 33–64 of the PDC Order of Merit (receiving byes into Third Round)

Number 65–96 of the PDC Order of Merit (receiving byes into Second Round)

Number 97–128 of the PDC Order of Merit (starting in First Round)

PDC UK Development Tour Qualifiers (starting in First Round)

The top 4 ranked players from the 2021 UK Development Tour Order of Merit who didn't have a Tour Card for the 2022 season qualified for the first round.

PDC European Development Tour Qualifiers (starting in First Round)

The top 4 ranked players from the 2021 European Development Tour Order of Merit who didn't have a Tour Card for the 2022 season qualified for the first round.

PDC UK Challenge Tour Qualifiers (starting in First Round)

The top 4 ranked players from the 2021 UK Challenge Tour Order of Merit who didn't have a Tour Card for the 2022 season qualified for the first round.

PDC European Challenge Tour Qualifiers (starting in First Round)

The top 4 ranked players from the 2021 European Challenge Tour Order of Merit who didn't have a Tour Card for the 2022 season qualified for the first round. Steven Noster chose not to compete and was replaced in the rankings by

Lukas Wenig Lukas Wenig (born 18 September 1994) is a professional Germany, German darts player who plays in Professional Darts Corporation events. Wenig qualified for his first PDC European Tour tournament in 2019, when he qualified for the 2019 German Da ...

Riley's Qualifiers (starting in First Round)

The winners of qualifiers organised by Rileys Sports Bars, held through January and February 2022, qualified for the first round. Entry to these tournaments was open to all players who had not qualified via another method, regardless of PDC Membership status.

Prize money

Format

Qualifiers

Number 1–32 of the PDC Order of Merit (receiving byes into Fourth Round)

Number 33–64 of the PDC Order of Merit (receiving byes into Third Round)

Number 65–96 of the PDC Order of Merit (receiving byes into Second Round)

Number 97–128 of the PDC Order of Merit (starting in First Round)

PDC UK Development Tour Qualifiers (starting in First Round)

PDC European Development Tour Qualifiers (starting in First Round)

PDC UK Challenge Tour Qualifiers (starting in First Round)

PDC European Challenge Tour Qualifiers (starting in First Round)

Riley's Qualifiers (starting in First Round)

Draw

Friday 4 March

First round (best of eleven legs)

Second round (best of eleven legs)

Third round (best of eleven legs)

Fourth round (best of nineteen legs)

Saturday 5 March

Fifth round (best of nineteen legs)

Sixth round (best of nineteen legs)

Sunday 6 March

Quarter-finals (best of nineteen legs)

Semi-finals and Final

References