The 2010 Rileys Darts Zones UK Open was the eighth year of the PDC darts tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competed in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion. The tournament was held at the

Reebok Stadium The University of Bolton Stadium is the home ground of Bolton Wanderers F.C. in Horwich, Greater Manchester, England. Opening in 1997, it was named the Reebok Stadium, after club sponsors Reebok. In 2014, Bolton Wanderers signed a naming ri ...

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ...

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 ...

, from 3–6 June 2010, and had the nickname, "the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...

of darts" as a random draw was staged after each round until the final. It was eventually won by Phil Taylor who defeated Scotland's Gary Anderson 11–5 to make it his fourth UK Open and second consecutive championship. Earlier in the tournament, Anderson was the on the wrong side of a

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 a ...

from Mervyn King. In the fourth round of this tournament, Phil Taylor beat

Kevin Painter Kevin Painter (born 12 July 1967) is an English retired darts player, known as "The Artist". He is arguably most famous for finishing as the runner-up to Phil Taylor in the 2004 PDC World Championship final, now widely credited as one of the ...

9–0 with a 3–dart average of 118.66, which at the time was the all-time highest 3–dart average for a televised darts match. It was eventually beaten on 25 February 2016 in the

2016 Premier League Darts The 2016 Betway Premier League Darts was a darts tournament organised by the Professional Darts Corporation – the twelfth edition of the tournament. The event began on 4 February at the First Direct Arena in Leeds and ended with the Play-offs ...

meeting in Aberdeen, when

Michael van Gerwen Michael van Gerwen (; born 25 April 1989) is a Dutch professional darts player. He is currently ranked number 3 in the world, having been number 1 from 2014 to 2021. He is also a three-time PDC World Champion, having won the title in 2014, 2 ...

averaged 123.40 in beating Michael Smith 7–1.

2010 UK Open Qualifiers

There were eight qualifying events staged between February and May 2010 to determine the UK Open Order of Merit Table. The tournament winners were:

Format and qualifiers

The tournament featured 138 players. As in previous years, eight regional UK Open events were staged across the UK where players winning were collated into the UK Open Order Of Merit. The top 96 players and ties in the list, who played a minimum of three events received a place at the final stages.

Top 32 in Order of Merit (receiving byes into Third Round)

The Rileys qualifiers and the players outside the top 32 of the UK Open Order of Merit began the tournament on the Thursday night. They played down to 32 players, and they were joined by the top 32 of the UK Open Order of Merit the following night, to provide the competition's last 64. A random draw was made after each subsequent round.

Number 33-64 of the Order of Merit (receiving byes into Second Round)

Remaining Order of Merit qualifiers (starting in First and Preliminary Round)

32 players qualified from Rileys qualifiers held in Rileys Dart Zones across Britain. 10 players qualified as BDO representatives from Avon, Bedfordshire, East Stirlingshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Lothian, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Warwickshire. These counties were rewarded one spot each in the UK Open for voting in favour of listening to

Barry Hearn Barry Maurice William Hearn (born 19 June 1948) is an English sporting events promoter and the founder and President of promotions company Matchroom Sport. Through Matchroom, Hearn is also involved in many sports including snooker, darts, ...

's proposed takeover of the BDO.

Prize money

For the second consecutive UK Open, the prize fund was £200,000.

Draw

The draw for the preliminary, first and second rounds was made on 13 May.

Thursday 3 June; Best of 11 legs

Preliminary round

Round 1

* ‡ Steve Farmer received a bye as Dean Edlin was disqualified because he did not register * † Tony Hutchinson received a bye as Darren Sullivan was disqualified because he did not register

Round 2

* * Chris Mason withdrew for personal reasons.

Friday 4 June; Best of 17 legs

Round 3

Saturday 5 June; Best of 17 legs

Round 4

Round 5

Sunday 6 June

Last 8 to final

Nine Dart Finish

Mervyn King hit a

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 ...

in his fourth round match against Gary Anderson, however he lost the match 9-8.

World Record

Phil Taylor hit the highest televised average in history in his 9-0 victory over Kevin Painter, finishing the match with a three-dart average of 118.66.

References

External links

The official PDC page for the UK Open
{{2010 in PDC darts UK Open UK Open Darts UK Open UK Open