The 2008 PDC World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2008 Ladbrokes.com World Darts Championship) was the fifteenth World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event took place between 17 December 2007 and 1 January 2008 at the Alexandra Palace, London, England.

John Part won his third World Championship, beating the qualifier Kirk Shepherd 7–2 in the final. He joined Phil Taylor, Raymond van Barneveld, Eric Bristow, and John Lowe as the only people to have won more than two world titles, although they have since been joined by Martin Adams, Michael van Gerwen and Glen Durrant. He is also one of seven players to have won the PDC World Darts Championship more than once, along with Phil Taylor, Adrian Lewis, Gary Anderson, Michael van Gerwen, Peter Wright and Luke Littler. In addition, he became the first player to have won World Championships in three different venues; the Lakeside, the Circus Tavern and the Alexandra Palace.

Raymond van Barneveld was the defending champion having won the PDC World Championship at the first attempt in an epic final against Taylor in 2007. He was knocked out in the third round with a 4–2 loss to Kevin Painter.

Taylor failed to reach the final of the competition for the first time in PDC World Championship history, after losing 5–4 to Wayne Mardle in the quarter-finals.

In addition to several highly ranked players failing to reach the latter stages of the competition, an argument could be made that this tournament had, statistically, the lowest standard of play from any PDC World Championship this millennium. A distinct lack of quality was exhibited across the draw: no single player achieved a 3-dart average of over 100 in any match in the entire tournament, the highest being John Part's average of 99.06 in his second-round match against Mensur Suljovic; additionally, there were only six 3-dart averages of 96 or higher in any match in the entire tournament (see Draw below). Kirk Shepherd, meanwhile, incredibly finished runner-up in the tournament without averaging over 90 in any match he played in the tournament - he is the only player to achieve this feat in any PDC World Championship event this millennium. Shepherd was also the first player making his PDC World Championship debut to reach the final, without having played in a BDO World Championship.

After being staged at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet for 14 years, the tournament moved to the Alexandra Palace in London.PDC championship moves to London 2 April 2007 The championships had been considered to have outgrown the Circus Tavern whose capacity of 800–1,000 spectators was considerably smaller than some Holsten Premier League darts events in 2007 which saw crowds reaching 5,000. The Alexandra Palace was the venue of the News of the World Darts Championship between 1963 and 1977 and boasts a capacity for 2008 of 2,500.

Format and qualifiers The televised stages featured 68 players. The top 32 players in the PDC Order of Merit on 12 November 2007 received an automatic place in the World Championship.Current PDC Order of Merit Top 32 players will qualify for World Championships They were joined by 16 PDPA members and 20 international qualifiers determined by the PDC and PDPA.

The 16 PDPA members were made up from the top eight players (who had not already qualified) in the PDC Pro Tour Events during 2007: Jelle Klaasen, Mark Walsh, Tony Eccles, Michael van Gerwen, Steve Brown, Dave Askew, Jason Clark and Matt Clark.Current Players Championship Order of Merit Top eight will qualify for World Championship

The final eight qualifiers were determined at a PDPA Qualifying event which was held on 17 November 2007 in Wolverhampton – prior to the Grand Slam of Darts tournament. The successful players were Steve Maish, Jan van der Rassel, Colin Monk, Steve Evans, Jamie Caven, Steve Hine, Kirk Shepherd and Jason Barry. Former world champions John Lowe, Eric Bristow, Keith Deller and Richie Burnett all played in the qualifying rounds but failed to reach the televised stages.

Order of Merit Phil Taylor Raymond van Barneveld James Wade Terry Jenkins Peter Manley Adrian Lewis Andy Hamilton Roland Scholten Wayne Mardle Dennis Priestley John Part Colin Lloyd Barrie Bates Ronnie Baxter Kevin Painter Andy Jenkins Alan Tabern Mark Dudbridge Chris Mason Colin Osborne Denis Ovens Andy Smith Wayne Jones Wes Newton Mervyn King Vincent van der Voort Alex Roy Alan Warriner-Little Mick McGowan Steve Beaton Bob Anderson Adrian Gray

Pro Tour Jelle Klaasen Mark Walsh Michael van Gerwen Steve Brown Matt Clark Tony Eccles Dave Askew Jason Clark

PDPA qualifiers Jamie Caven Kirk Shepherd Steve Hine Steve Maish Jason Barry Steve Evans Jan van der Rassel Colin Monk

PDC North American Pro TourOrder of MeritFirst round qualifiers Gary Mawson Ray Carver Gerry Convery Dan Olson

Dutch/Belgian DDFOrder of MeritFirst round qualifiers Leroy Kwadijk Toon Greebe

German Darts CorporationOrder of MeritFirst round qualifiers Mensur Suljović Michael Rosenauer

Danish Order of MeritFirst round qualifiers Per Laursen

Australia Order of MeritFirst round qualifiers Steve MacArthur

Oceanic Masters winnerFirst round qualifiers Warren Parry

South African Open winnerFirst round qualifiers Charles Losper

International qualifiersPreliminary round qualifiers Akihiro Nagakawa Anthony Forde Rizal Barellano Miloslav Navrátil Alan Bolton Erwin Extercatte Ashfaque Sayed Shi Yongsheng

Prize money The 2008 World Championship featured a prize fund of £589,000. The prize money for earlier round losers was increased, whilst the winner and runner-up prize money was unchanged.Tournament structure Planetdarts website.

Position (num. of players) Prize money(Total: £589,000)Winner (1) £100,000Runner-Up (1) £50,000Semi-finalists (2) £22,500Quarter-finalists (4) £15,000Third round losers (8) £10,500Second round losers (16) £7,000First round losers (32) £4,000Preliminary round losers (4) £2,500Nine-dart finish (0) £20,000

Draw Preliminary round (best of nine legs, played Wednesday 19 December and Thursday 20 December) Player Score Player 68.85 Akihiro Nagakawa 2 – 5 Anthony Forde 69.83 68.58 Rizal Barellano 0 – 5 Miloslav Navrátil 74.96 60.38 Alan Bolton 0 – 5 63.15 72.03 Ashfaque Sayed 0 – 5 Shi Yongsheng 78.28

Draw

Finals

Rounds 1-4

Scores after player's names are three-dart averages (total points scored divided by darts thrown and multiplied by 3)

Statistics

Overall Highest Checkout: 170 ( Mervyn King, James Wade, Wayne Mardle) Total 180's scored: 478 Highest Match Average: 99.06 ( John Part, second round vs Mensur Suljović)

Individual statistics Player Played Sets Won Sets Lost Legs Won Legs Lost 100+ 140+ 180s High checkout 3-dart average John Part 6 29 10 98 68 202 112 34 160 94.42 Kirk Shepherd 6 24 23 104 101 237 120 33 160 83.92 Phil Taylor 4 15 13 66 59 162 70 19 137 93.67 Michael van Gerwen 1 2 3 11 13 29 15 1 106 85.99 Adrian Gray 1 2 3 10 12 28 18 3 104 88.01 Mark Walsh 2 6 6 23 24 52 38 10 156 88.58 Andy Jenkins 2 3 6 14 19 31 15 9 142 83.42 Rizal Barellano 1 0 0 0 5 4 3 0 – 68.58 Miloslav Navrátil 2 2 3 12 11 14 8 6 81 79.04 Alan Tabern 3 10 5 39 30 98 55 9 160 89.14 Per Laursen 1 1 3 8 10 30 10 2 68 84.17 Roland Scholten 3 10 8 36 40 103 56 19 140 93.07 Matt Clark 1 2 3 12 10 25 19 4 100 93.88 Mervyn King 2 5 6 26 24 57 47 10 170 93.14 Michael Rosenauer 1 2 3 11 13 29 18 3 116 86.60 Wayne Mardle 5 20 16 81 70 183 135 24 170 90.92 Ray Carver 1 2 3 8 11 26 7 7 110 90.30 Wes Newton 1 0 3 4 9 14 11 2 81 87.15 Jamie Caven 2 4 4 15 17 39 16 3 121 85.86 Peter Manley 4 15 9 57 49 167 80 14 156 90.27 Toon Greebe 1 2 3 9 12 22 17 4 94 89.60 Alan Warriner-Little 2 4 5 19 18 46 22 4 108 86.77 Ashfaque Sayed 1 0 0 0 5 4 2 0 – 72.03 Shi Yongsheng 2 1 3 10 11 23 13 0 119 77.33 Colin Lloyd 1 2 3 14 14 29 13 1 120 85.75 Jan van der Rassel 3 8 7 37 37 103 51 10 116 89.47 Denis Ovens 2 4 4 18 14 46 20 6 100 87.65 Colin Monk 1 0 3 0 9 4 4 0 – 69.48 Terry Jenkins 1 2 3 10 10 32 13 1 56 83.62 Mick McGowan 2 6 4 25 24 66 35 6 120 85.88 Jason Barry 1 0 3 5 9 13 13 1 64 87.75 Barrie Bates 3 9 7 36 28 101 34 6 120 83.66 Gerry Convery 1 0 3 1 9 10 4 2 82 79.50 Colin Osborne 1 1 3 8 9 14 6 10 144 90.33 Alan Bolton 1 0 0 0 5 3 0 0 – 60.38 Erwin Extercatte 3 6 5 27 24 61 18 5 147 79.91 Raymond van Barneveld 3 9 5 34 25 73 36 13 120 90.73 Akihiro Nagakawa 1 0 0 2 5 9 1 1 40 68.85 Anthony Forde 2 0 3 9 11 28 11 2 120 75.84 Bob Anderson 1 2 3 10 11 30 16 4 141 91.07 Jason Clark 2 4 6 19 24 53 32 9 104 88.83 Kevin Painter 5 18 10 69 45 159 77 24 137 92.23 Gary Mawson 1 0 3 2 9 14 4 2 96 83.86 Chris Mason 2 3 5 16 15 39 15 2 136 84.32 Steve Brown 1 1 3 3 11 20 7 0 67 77.61 Adrian Lewis 4 13 11 46 50 118 55 22 136 92.26 Dave Askew 1 1 3 8 10 25 11 3 62 90.46 Vincent van der Voort 2 5 6 27 28 71 32 19 124 91.70 Jelle Klaasen 1 2 3 15 15 36 19 6 104 90.27 Dennis Priestley 1 1 3 7 9 28 7 3 130 92.06 Steve Maish 2 6 5 25 24 68 17 7 110 89.94 Wayne Jones 1 0 3 3 9 22 7 0 42 83.71 Tony Eccles 3 10 7 41 33 96 55 10 156 93.15 Andy Hamilton 2 4 5 19 17 35 20 16 144 90.59 Leroy Kwadijk 1 1 3 3 11 10 6 0 160 74.17 Alex Roy 3 7 7 35 30 108 41 5 124 87.63 Warren Parry 1 2 3 11 16 41 13 1 91 83.56 Charles Losper 1 1 3 8 11 18 9 4 94 85.21 Andy Smith 1 2 3 11 12 34 16 2 88 81.11 Mensur Suljović 2 4 6 17 23 38 15 11 111 87.26 James Wade 4 15 6 59 46 134 72 17 170 89.19 Steve MacArthur 1 0 3 1 9 15 5 0 16 75.66 Steve Beaton 2 6 4 23 18 52 23 7 98 82.40 Steve Evans 1 0 3 1 9 13 9 1 20 75.56 Ronnie Baxter 2 5 6 23 25 71 25 9 137 91.07 Dan Olson 1 2 3 9 13 23 12 6 120 85.17 Mark Dudbridge 3 9 7 38 30 71 38 12 113 86.11 Steve Hine 1 1 3 5 11 17 8 2 100 83.07

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

ENG NED SCO WAL IRL CAN GER AUT NZL AUS USA RSA DEN CHN BAR CZE JPN PHI IND Total Final 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Semis 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 Quarters 7 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 Round 3 11 3 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 16 Round 2 22 5 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 32 Round 1 36 9 1 2 2 3 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 64 Prelim. 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 Total 36 9 1 2 2 3 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 68

Tournament review

Day one

Alan Tabern 3–1 Per Laursen Mark Walsh 0–3 Adrian Gray Wayne Mardle 3–0 Ray Carver Jan van der Rassel 3–2 Colin Lloyd

Day two

Roland Scholten 3–0 Matt Clark Peter Manley 3–0 Toon Greebe Phil Taylor 3–2 Michael Van Gerwen Mervyn King 3–1 Michael Rosenauer

Day three, Wednesday 19 December

Jamie Caven 2–3 Wes Newton Denis Ovens 3–1 Colin Monk Mick Mcgowan 3–0 Jason Barry Barrie Bates 3–0 Gerry Convery Jason Clark 3–2 Bob Anderson Kirk Shepherd 3–1 Terry Jenkins Chris Mason 3–1 Steve Brown Kevin Painter 3–0 Gary Mawson

Day four, Thursday 20 December

Andy Jenkins 3–1 Miloslav Navrátil Tony Eccles 1–3 Wayne Jones Andy Hamilton 3–1 Leroy Kwadijk Alex Roy 3–0 Warren Parry Steve Maish 3–1 Dennis Priestley Adrian Lewis 3–1 Dave Askew Raymond Van Barneveld 3–0 Anthony Forde Vincent Van Der Voort 3–2 Jelle Klaasen

Day five, Friday 21 December

Alan Warriner-Little 3–1 Shi Yongsheng Erwin Extercatte 0–3 Colin Osborne Mensur Suljovic 3–2 Andy Smith Steve Beaton 3–0 Steve Evans Ronnie Baxter 3–2 Dan Olson James Wade 3–0 Steve Macarthur John Part 3-1 Charles Losper Mark Dudbridge 3–1 Steve Hine

Alan Tabern 4–0 Andy Jenkins (3–1 3–1 3–1 3–0) Jan Van Der Rassel 0–4 Denis Ovens (1–3 1–3 2–3 0–3) Peter Manley 4–2 Shi Yongsheng ( 3–0 3–0 1–3 3–2 0–3 3–1) Roland Scholten 0–4 Mervyn King ( 0–3 0–3 0–3 1–3) Phil Taylor 4–1 Adrian Gray ( 1–3 3–0 3–2 3–2 3–0) Wayne Mardle 4–2 Wes Newton (3–0 1–3 2–3 3–2 3–2 3–1)

Sunday 23 December to Tuesday 25 December