2001 World Championship

The 2001 Skol World Darts championship was held between December 28, 2000 and January 3, 2001 at the Circus Tavern, Purfleet.

The tournament saw a notable first as Gayl King of Canada became the first woman to appear in the men’s World Championship, having been given a wild card by organisers the Professional Darts Corporation. It was seen as a publicity stunt by the PDC to raise the profile of the game and also came in the year that rival organisation, the British Darts Organisation had announced that they were starting a Women’s World Championship to run alongside the men’s championship at Lakeside.

Five-time former World Champion, Eric Bristow missed his first World Championship for 23 years, having played each year since the World Championship began in 1978. John Lowe was now the only player with a 100% appearance record. Peter Manley became the first top seed to go out in the first round since the PDC event began in 1994.

Canadian, John Part - BDO World Champion in the first year after a notorious split in the game finally showed the kind of form that took him to that title back in 1994. Having won only two matches in his previous three attempts at the PDC crown, he defeated Colin Lloyd, Dennis Smith, Alan Warriner and Rod Harrington to reach the final.

But it was Phil Taylor who reigned supreme again winning the title for the seventh successive time, his ninth World Championship. From the quarter-finals onwards, Taylor never lost a single set and dropped just three legs during the final, winning 7 sets to 0.

First Round

Peter Manley 2 - 3 Jamie Harvey
John Lowe 3 - 1 Garry Spedding
Alex Roy 3 - 2 Steve Raw
Mick Manning 2 - 3 Dave Askew
Dennis Priestley 2 - 3 Keith Deller
Richie Burnett 3 - 2 Steve Brown
Denis Ovens 1 - 3 Les Fitton
Nigel Justice 0 - 3 Phil Taylor
Shayne Burgess 0 - 3 Roland Scholten
Cliff Lazarenko 3 - 0 Scott Cummings
Graeme Stoddart 3 - 1 Gayl King (f)
Bob Anderson 1 - 3 Rod Harrington
John Part 3 - 0 Colin Lloyd
Dennis Smith 3 - 0 Peter Evison
Paul Lim 3 - 1 Dan Lauby
Reg Harding 0 - 3 Alan Warriner

Second Round

Jamie Harvey 3 - 0 John Lowe
Alex Roy 2 - 3 Dave Askew
Keith Deller 3 - 2 Richie Burnett
Les Fitton 1 - 3 Phil Taylor
Roland Scholten 3 - 0 Cliff Lazarenko
Graeme Stoddart 0 - 3 Rod Harrington
John Part 3 - 2 Dennis Smith
Paul Lim 2 - 3 Alan Warriner

Quarter Finals

Jamie Harvey 0 - 4 Dave Askew
Keith Deller 0 - 4 Phil Taylor
Roland Scholten 2 - 4 Rod Harrington
John Part 4 - 1 Alan Warriner

Semi Finals

Dave Askew 0 - 6 Phil Taylor
Rod Harrington 5 - 6 John Part

Final

Phil Taylor 7 - 0 John Part
-wikipedia