2000 World Championship

The 2000 Skol World Darts Championship was held between 28 December 1999 and 4 January 2000 at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet, Essex. The tournament is staged earlier in the calendar year than most World Championships in sport, and thus Sky television commentators claimed that Phil Taylor was the “First World Champion of the new Millennium”.

Taylor continued his dominance of this event, notching up his sixth successive world championship, his eighth overall. Dennis Priestley must have considered himself unlucky to be around during these years - he suffered his fourth final loss to Taylor in five years and failed to add to his two world championship successes.

Eric Bristow’s first round defeat to American, Steve Brown would virtually signal the end of the legendary player’s career at the top-level. Bristow, who would continue to attempt to qualify for the championship a few times after 2000 made his last appearance in the championship, which ended his run of having appeared in a World Championship for 23 consecutive years spanning back to the inaugural World Championship of 1978. John Lowe became the only player with an unbroken appearance record.

First Round

Peter Manley 3 - 0 Bob Anderson
Eric Bristow 2 - 3 Steve Brown
Steve Raw 3 - 2 Scott Cummings
Gerald Verrier 0 - 3 Peter Evison
Dennis Priestley 3 - 2 Braulio Roncero
Jamie Harvey 3 - 2 Kevin Spiolek
Nigel Justice 3 - 0 Dean Allsop
Colin Lloyd 0 - 3 Shayne Burgess
Rod Harrington 2 - 3 John Lowe
Keith Deller 3 - 0 Gary Mawson
Dennis Smith 3 - 1 Cliff Lazarenko
John Ferrell 0 - 3 John Part
Alan Warriner 3 - 0 Paul Lim
Reg Harding 0 - 3 Alex Roy
Dan Lauby 2 - 3 Graeme Stoddart
Mick Manning 0 - 3 Phil Taylor

Second Round

Peter Manley 3 - 1 Steve Brown
Steve Raw 1 - 3 Peter Evison
Dennis Priestley 3 - 2 Jamie Harvey
Nigel Justice 0 - 3 Shayne Burgess
John Lowe 3 - 1 Keith Deller
Dennis Smith 3 - 0 John Part
Alan Warriner 3 - 0 Alex Roy
Graeme Stoddart 0 - 3 Phil Taylor

Quarter Finals

Peter Manley 5 - 1 Peter Evison
Dennis Priestley 5 - 4 Shayne Burgess
John Lowe 3 - 5 Dennis Smith
Alan Warriner 0 - 5 Phil Taylor

Semi Finals

Peter Manley 2 - 5 Dennis Priestley
Dennis Smith 0 - 5 Phil Taylor

Final

Dennis Priestley 3 - 7 Phil Taylor
-wikipedia