The 2011 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship was the 18th

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

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 Wor ...

since it separated from the

British Darts Organisation The British Darts Organisation (BDO) was a darts organisation founded on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft, and dissolved in 2020 under the stewardship of Des Jacklin. Made up of 66 member counties, it oversaw professional, semi-professional and ...

. The event took place at the

Alexandra Palace Alexandra Palace is an entertainment and sports venue in North London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. A listed building, Grade II listed building, it is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and th ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

from 16 December 2010 and 3 January 2011. A total of 72 players took part, 16 of whom began at the preliminary round stage, with the eight winners joining the remaining 56 players in the first round proper. Phil Taylor was the defending champion, having won the 2010 tournament. He was knocked out of the tournament at the quarter-final stage by Mark Webster, who in turn was defeated by Adrian Lewis in the semi-finals. Lewis went on to win the tournament, beating Gary Anderson 7–5 in the final to become only the fifth different PDC World Champion and the first to have won it without having won the rival BDO World Championship. The final between Adrian Lewis and Gary Anderson was notable for a number of reasons. It was the last match that

Sid Waddell Sidney Waddell (10 August 1940 – 11 August 2012) was an English sports commentator and television personality. He was nicknamed the 'Voice of Darts' due to his fame as a darts commentator, and worked for Granada Television, Granada, Yorkshire ...

commentated on at the

PDC World Darts Championship The PDC World Darts Championship, known for sponsorship purposes as the Paddy Power World Darts Championship is a world championship competition held annually in the sport of darts. The championship begins in December and ends in January and has ...

before his death in 2012. It was the first ever nine-dart finish in a PDC World Championship final, hit by Lewis in the third leg of the match and not accomplished again until Michael Smith did so in

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

against

Michael van Gerwen Michael van Gerwen (; born 25 April 1989) is a Dutch professional darts player, who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where is currently ranked PDC Order of Merit, world number three; he was ranked world number one from 20 ...

. And it was also the first PDC World Championship final involving 2 players that were playing in their first World final. 4-time PDC World Championship semi-finalist Wayne Mardle was a notable absentee, missing out on his first World Championship since

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

. The 3-time PDC World Championship finalist Peter Manley was also another notable absentee, having missed out in his first World Championship since qualifying every year from 1997 to 2010.

Format and qualifiers

The televised stages featured 72 players from a minimum of 22 countries. The top 32 players in the PDC Order of Merit on 29 November 2010 were seeded for the tournament. They were joined by the 16 highest non qualified players in the Players Championship Order of Merit from events played on the

PDC Pro Tour The PDC Pro Tour is a series of non-televised darts tournaments organised by the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC). They comprise Professional Dart Players Association (PDPA) Players Championships and European Tour events. Only four players ...

. These 48 players were joined by two PDPA qualifiers (which were determined at a PDPA Qualifying event held in

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

on November 29, 2010), and 22 international players: the 4 highest names in the European Order of Merit not already qualified, the 2 highest names in the North American Order of Merit not already qualified and 16 further international qualifiers determined by the PDC and PDPA. Some of the international players, such as the 4 from the European Order of Merit, and the top American and Australian players were entered straight into the first round, while others, having won qualifying events in their countries, were entered into the preliminary round. Order of Merit # Phil Taylor # James Wade #

Raymond van Barneveld Raymond van Barneveld (born 20 April 1967) is a Dutch professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, where he was ranked world number one from January 2008 to June 2008. Nicknamed "Barney", he is a five-t ...

Simon Whitlock Simon Whitlock (born 3 March 1969) is an Australian professional darts player who competes in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events, having previously competed in British Darts Organisation (BDO) events. Nicknamed "The Wizard", he won th ...

# Adrian Lewis # Mervyn King # Terry Jenkins # Ronnie Baxter # Colin Lloyd # Mark Walsh # Gary Anderson # Andy Hamilton # Wayne Jones # Colin Osborne # Wes Newton # Paul Nicholson # Co Stompé # Kevin Painter # Jamie Caven # Vincent van der Voort # Robert Thornton # Dennis Priestley # Alan Tabern # Steve Beaton # Mark Webster # Jelle Klaasen # Andy Smith # Mark Dudbridge # Denis Ovens # Barrie Bates #

John Part John Part (born 29 June 1966) is a Canadian former professional darts player and current commentator, who competes in World Seniors events. Nicknamed "Darth Maple", he is a three-time World Champion, having won the 1994 BDO World Darts Champions ...

Pro Tour # Steve Farmer # Richie Burnett # Steve Brown #

Justin Pipe Justin Pipe (born 9 November 1971) is an English former professional darts player who competed in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. He won six PDC titles. Playing career Pipe was a Boxing, boxer in his youth, and, as a staunch anti- ...

# Tony Eccles # Dennis Smith # Nigel Heydon # Brendan Dolan # Steve Hine # Steve Maish # Kevin McDine # Mark Hylton # Chris Thompson # Peter Wright # Steve Evans # Joe Cullen # Kirk Shepherd European Order of Merit
''First round qualifiers'' * Antonio Alcinas * Andree Welge * Bernd Roith * Mensur Suljović PDPA qualifiers
''First round qualifier'' * Alex Roy ''Preliminary round qualifier'' * Matt Padgett International qualifiers
''First round qualifiers'' * Darin Young * Shane Tichowitsch * ~~Rob Modra~~ ''Preliminary round qualifiers'' * Gary Mawson * Jyhan Artut * Dietmar Burger * Magnus Caris * Juanito Gionson * Morihiro Hashimoto * Boris Krčmar * Per Laursen * Scott MacKenzie * Norman Madhoo * Mickey Mansell * Devon Petersen * Preston Ridd * Roland Scholten *

Veijo Viinikka Veijo Viinikka (born 27 March 1966) is a Finnish professional darts player. He competed in the 2011 PDC World Darts Championship, losing 4–2 to Roland Scholten in the preliminary round. He made his European Tour debut for German Darts Champi ...

:1 Rob Modra was unable to get a visa, so therefore, he was replaced by Kirk Shepherd, the next highest ranked player in the Players Championship Order of Merit.

Prize money

The 2011 World Championship featured a prize fund of £1,000,000 – the same as in the previous year. The Third Place Playoff did not take place this year. The prize money is allocated as follows:

Draw

Preliminary round

The preliminary round was played from Dec 16 to Dec 23 with one match per day. The format was best of 7 legs.

Last 64

The winner of the eight preliminary-round matches joined 56 other players in the first round. The first round draw took place on Tuesday 30 November live in the studio of Sky Sports News, and was conducted by 1983 World champion Keith Deller and Sky Sports darts' analyst and former World Matchplay champion, Rod Harrington.

Finals

Rounds 1-4

Final

Statistics

Representation from different countries

This table shows the number of players by country in the World Championship, the total number including the preliminary round.

Television coverage

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

broadcast all 72 matches live in high-definition in the United Kingdom. Dave Clark presented the coverage with analysis from Rod Harrington and Eric Bristow. They also commentated on matches along with

(in his final PDC World Darts Championship commentating appearance), John Gwynne, Nigel Pearson, Rod Studd and Stuart Pyke. This was the first PDC World Championship where Dave Lanning wasn't commentating having retired prior to the tournament. Due to the ill health of Harrington, Wayne Mardle replaced him post-Christmas and featured both commentating and co-presenting alongside Clark. Former England cricketer

Andrew Flintoff Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (born 6 December 1977), is an English television and radio presenter and former international cricketer. Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all-rounders, a fast bowler, middle-ord ...

was also a guest commentator twice during tournament. Interviews were handled by either Clark, Bristow or Studd. In the Netherlands SBS6 broadcast all matches live through a live stream on the SBS6 website and Sport1 broadcast all the matches on television, both with commentary provided by Jacques Nieuwlaat and Leo Oldenburger. In Germany it was broadcast live on Sport1 with co-commentary provided by Roland Scholten, and in Australia it was broadcast live on

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

References

External links

The official site of the Ladbrokes.com PDC World Darts Championship

Results and Schedule

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pdc World Darts Championship 2011

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2010 in darts 2011 in darts

2011 in British sport December 2010 sports events in the United Kingdom International sports competitions in London Alexandra Palace January 2011 in the United Kingdom