Sky Sports expert Wayne Mardle picks his top five World Darts Championship moments
Tuesday 9 December 2014 12:51, UK
Down through the years, the World Darts Championship has delivered an array of memorable moments.
Live World Darts Championship
From Phil Taylor’s terrific tussles with Dennis Priestley during the 1990s to the emergence of a new generation of stars such as Adrian Lewis and Michael van Gerwen, the Christmas period has never been short on darting drama.
The 2015 World Darts Championship gets underway on December 18 and you can catch all of the action live on Sky Sports Darts. As well as live coverage from Alexandra Palace, Sky Sports Darts will screen a host of programmes and features including a fascinating documentary with reigning champion Van Gerwen.
Sky Sports expert Wayne Mardle will once again be in the commentary box, and we asked the four-time semi-finalist to pick his top five World Championship moments.
1983: Deller defeats Bristow
We’re going in chronological order. The first one for me is the 1983 final, when Eric Bristow faced Keith Deller. That was my first-ever time watching darts. My dad used to play, but that was the first match I’d ever watched.
I completely took to Bristow straight away; I loved him. And I couldn’t believe that he was playing this kid who looked as old as me! I never thought Eric would lose, and when Keith won with a 138 checkout, I was absolutely amazed. I never used to read the papers, but I remember having to read The Sun the following day because I still couldn’t quite believe it.
What I remember of the match is that in the penultimate set, Keith should have won the match there and then, but Bristow made it 5-5 and I thought he might punish him. But Deller just kept going. I remember thinking, 'This guy is going to win everything because he is so cool under pressure'. How wrong was I!
I wasn’t even playing darts back then. I had just taken an interest. But after that final, I had to play because I knew a youngster could do well.
2003: Part pips the Power
We're going to skip forward 20 years to a period where no one beat Phil Taylor in World Championships. No one stood up to him; if anyone got close to him, they buckled, and John Part seemed to be doing the same thing. Part was world No 2 at the time, so he was really the one person who could push Taylor. No offence to the others, but they just weren’t as good as Part.
Phil beat me 5-3 in the third round that year. I watched the final at the Circus Tavern and I felt John could win the match. Part went 3-0 up, 5-4 down and then 6-5 up, but Taylor forced a deciding set. At 2-1 up in the 13th set, Part was left with a finish of 77 to win the match.
It was only a 77 checkout, but the way it was carried out was typical Part. I hope he won’t mind me saying but John was never the greatest player in the world. However, he was an opportunist, and the opportunities he had in 1994, 2003 and 2008, he didn’t pass one of them up. When he wanted this 77, there wasn’t an element of doubt in my mind that he was ever going to miss it.
I’ll always remember the celebration, when John shook his own hand before giving Phil a big hug! He had done it but had no one to share it with, and I can honestly say that was only the second time I ever cried in sport. The first time was when Tottenham won the UEFA Cup in 1984. It was just amazing and I loved John Part for that. He stood up to someone that at the time was unbeatable in World Championships.
2007: Barney crosses the divide
The last World Championship at Circus Tavern produced one of the most incredible finals we've ever seen. Raymond van Barneveld had just come over from the BDO and everyone felt there was too much pressure on him. The last time he played Phil Taylor in a long format he was well beaten, and this was 10 years down the line.
Van Barneveld got in front, Phil pulled it back, and the way Barney held himself together was just absolutely incredible. When they threw for the bull ahead of sudden death, Phil hit the 25. The rules have changed since - you now have to take the dart out if you hit the bull or 25 - but Raymond told Taylor to leave the dart where it is and used it as a marker. He hit the bullseye, went first, and became world champion.
For Barney to withstand all of that pressure took a phenomenal effort. Since then, he's won the Premier League, UK Open, Grand Slam of Darts and an array of other titles. We know he's the real deal and could add another World Championship to his list of honours this year.
2008: Mardle magic
It's funny what you remember from a game you participate in. This is going to sound ridiculous but I was feeling quite confident when I faced Taylor in the 2008 quarter-finals, even when I was playing badly in the early sets. The darts weren't going in but I felt it would happen. I went for a break and spoke to Scott Gibling, who is a PDC official, and I said, 'You watch me go now'. He looked at me like I was a lunatic! I just felt comfortable though.
When you're 3-0 down to Phil Taylor at the World Championship, you normally go on and lose, but never at any point did I feel I would. I started to antagonise him a bit; I got a bit lairy and cocky. I knew Phil didn't like that, which is why I was doing it.
Crossing the line was easier than I thought because I left myself double 18 - of all the doubles to leave myself in the last set. If I won the set, I won the game; if I didn't, we were going to a last-leg shootout. And if the latter had occurred, Phil would have probably ended up going first because he was better at bullseyes that I was. But when I left double 18, I was thinking, 'I cannot miss this' and when it went in, the emotion came pouring out. It was great to beat Phil from 3-0 down. It was a special game.
2013: Quarter-final cracker
Adrian Lewis had shown no form whatsoever leading into the 2013 World Championship. He was the twice and reigning world champion, beating Gary Anderson in 2011 and Andy Hamilton in 2012, but he was absolutely diabolical heading into 2013.
Lewis played badly but got through to the quarter-finals, where he had to play the new kid on the block, Michael van Gerwen. Everyone was expecting Michael to run away with it. I was doing the commentary on the game and looking at the two players during the first couple of sets, I was thinking Adrian could not live with Michael on this form. But the pair of them just kept trading blow after blow.
For me, even though he lost, that was one of Adrian's best-ever performances. He showed that it was always going to take something special to take that title away from him. He said afterwards that it was a pleasure to play in that game, and that it could have gone either way. And he was right, because Adrian missed two darts to win it 5-4, but ended up losing by the same scoreline.
It was one of the most spectacular games, 180s galore between two high-scoring players. It was just a shame that Michael didn't go on to win the World Championship that year. That game seems to go under the radar but it was special, and I remember Adrian Lewis more for it because he was playing so badly. It was quick, full of incident, and both players averaged over 100, which is incredible over nine sets.
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