2007 UK Open

2007 Blue Square UK Open
Tournament information
Dates	7–10 June 2007
Venue	Reebok Stadium
Location	Bolton
Country	England
Organisation(s)	PDC
Format	Legs Final – best of 31
Prize fund	£150,000
Winner's share	£30,000
Nine-dart finish	Phil Taylor
High checkout	170 Colin Osborne
Champion(s)
Raymond van Barneveld
«2006 2008»

The 2007 Blue Square UK Open was the fifth year of the PDC's UK Open darts tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competed in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion. The tournament took place at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton, England, between 7–10 June 2007. Blue Square took over as title sponsor after Budweiser's three-year deal expired.

There were two changes being introduced this year where a tournament bracket was introduced from the quarter-final stage to prevent players being forced into playing long back-to-back matches. Previously there had been a random draw after each round and the tournament had earned the nickname the "FA Cup of darts" as a result. The number of players was expanded from 128 to 168 for the 2007 tournament, but due to players tied on 168th position in the Order of Merit the starting field was 176 players.

Raymond van Barneveld defended his title, by defeating fellow Dutchman Vincent van der Voort 16–8 in the final.

Stage (no. of players)		Prize money (Total: £150,000)[1]
Winner	(1)	£30,000
Runner-Up	(1)	£15,000
Semi-finalists	(2)	£8,500
Quarter-finalists	(4)	£4,000
Last 16 (fifth round)	(8)	£2,000
Last 32 (fourth round)	(16)	£1,500
Last 64 (third round)	(32)	£1,000
Last 96 (second round)	(32)	n/a
Last 128 (first round)	(32)	n/a
Last 160 (preliminary round)	(32)	n/a
Nine-dart finish	(1)	£15,000

Qualifying events are held at Punch Taverns pubs across the UK – winners from each pub event progress to one of four Regional Finals, to be staged in their relevant area. Players who reach the final eight in the Regional Finals will qualify for the televised stages of the UK Open in Bolton.

In addition there are eight UK Open Regional Finals for the "professional" players. All events are open to all darts players on payment of an entry fee – which means that players from both the PDC and BDO are eligible to enter. Players who enter through the Punch Taverns Qualifying round are not eligible to play in the regional qualifying events and vice versa.

The results of the eight qualifiers are then collated into an Order of Merit table (winner £4000; runner-up £2000; 3–4 £1000; 5–8 £500; 9–16 £250; 17–32 £100; 33–64 £50). This was raised to winner £5000; runner-up £2500; 3–4 £1250; 5–8 £600; 9–16 £300; 17–32 £150; 33–64 £75 from January 2007. The top 128 players (plus ties) in this Order of Merit join the 32 Punch Taverns qualifiers at the televised stages in Bolton.

The format for the event changes in 2007 to allow the tournament to expand by an extra day, and increase the number of players in the field.

• Day 1, Preliminary round – best of 15 legs

16 Matches drawn from a pool of 32 Punch Taverns Qualifiers and the 31 players with £50 or £75 in UK Open Order of Merit

1st round – best of 15 legs

32 Matches with 16 Preliminary round survivors, the remaining 31 players who were not drawn in Preliminary round and players ranked 97–113 in UK Open Order of Merit

• Day 2, 2nd round – best of 15 legs

Players ranked 65 to 96 join the first round winners.

3rd round – best of 15 legs

Players ranked 33 to 64 join the second round winners.

• Day 3, 4th round – best of 21 legs

Players ranked in the top 32 join the third round winners.

5th round – best of 21 legs

Last 32 of competition

6th round – best of 21 legs

Last 16 of competition followed by draw for quarter-finals in bracket form to avoid players being drawn in consecutive matches.

• Day 4, Quarter-finals – best of 21 legs

Semi-finals – best of 21 legs

Final – best of 31 legs

The UK Open Order of Merit was based on the results of the eight qualifying events across the UK. The eight final results were:-

24 September 2006 (Wales) Phil Taylor 2–1 Adrian Lewis

22 October (Ireland) Raymond van Barneveld 2–1 Colin Lloyd

5 November (Scotland) Raymond van Barneveld 2–0 Barrie Bates

6 January 2007 (North-East) Raymond van Barneveld 2–0 Roland Scholten

11 February (South-West) Dennis Priestley 2–0 James Wade

4 March (South) Phil Taylor 2–0 Wayne Mardle

18 March (North-West) James Wade 2–0 Terry Jenkins

1 April (Midlands) Andy Hamilton 2–0 James Wade

Collated results from later stages:-^[2]

	5th Round best of 21 legs losers £1,500				6th Round best of 21 legs losers £2,000				Quarter-finals best of 21 legs losers £4,000				Semi-finals best of 21 legs losers £8,500				Final best of 31 legs winner £30,000 Runner-up £15,000
	Vincent van der Voort	11
	Alex Roy	3			v der Voort	11
	Richie Burnett	11			Burnett	5
	Sam Rooney	6							v der Voort 80.68	11
	Terry Jenkins	11							T. Jenkins 86.25	10
	David Platt	3			T. Jenkins	11
	Mark Dudbridge	11			Dudbridge	4
	Adrian Lewis	7											v der Voort 89.17	11
	Colin Osborne	11											Osborne 89.19	10
	Michael van Gerwen	7			Osborne	11
	Mervyn King	11			King	10
	Denis Ovens	5							Osborne 89.86	11
	Alan Green	11							A. Green 85.39	6
	Andy Callaby	4			A. Green	11
	Darren Webster	11			Webster	8
	James Wade	7															Vincent van der Voort 88.76	8
	Raymond van Barneveld	11															Raymond van Barneveld 94.99	16
	John Part	10			v Barneveld	11
	Wayne Jones	11			W. Jones	5
	Mark Holden	6							v Barneveld 96.08	11
	Phil Taylor	11							Taylor 97.14	4
	Wes Newton	5			Taylor	11
	Dennis Priestley	11			Priestley	3
	Brendan Dolan	4											v Barneveld 102.82	11
	Colin Lloyd	11											Lloyd 95.23	4
	Andy Smith	7			Lloyd	11
	Kevin Painter	11			Painter	9
	Steve Smith	7							Lloyd 94.90	11
	Steve Hine	11							Hine 84.82	6
	Adrian Gray	6			Hine	11
	Colin Monk	11			Monk	8
	Owen Caffrey	7

Random draws were made after each round up to the quarter-final stage; draw bracket has been compiled retrospectively.

The first round was played on Thursday and featured 81 players competing for a place in the second round. Winmau World Masters champion Michael van Gerwen, playing his first match on Sky Television in the UK, beat 37-year-old Chris McTernan a pub qualifier from Bacup. Former World Champion Richie Burnett and Cliff Lazarenko also played on the opening day – both progressing to the second round.

There were very few shocks on day two of the tournament, although former world champions Bob Anderson and Keith Deller, who were both struggling for form, were both knocked out. Cliff Lazarenko's run in the event ended in the third round. The draw for the fourth round, featuring the top 32 players in the world was staged at the end of Friday's play.

64 players remained when matches got underway on Saturday afternoon, after a late night on Friday. Raymond Barneveld would book a place in Round 5 with an 11–1 win over John "Mr. Magoo" MaGowan, who he defeated 11–7 in the Semi-finals twelve months ago. It was a different story against John Part with less doubles hit for Barney (compared to 80% against MaGowan). Part led 10–9, but van Barneveld squeezed through to hit double 16 and edge a great match 11–10.

Phil Taylor achieved his third nine dart finish at Bolton in the fifth round against Wes Newton – it is also his fifth televised perfect game. Taylor was playing on the second main stage and whilst his match was in progress Colin Osborne was on his way to an 11–7 victory against Michael van Gerwen, including a 170 finish within moments of Taylor hitting the nine-darter. Osborne also saw off Mervyn King 11–10 – his second deciding leg victory of the day to reach the quarter-finals. Kevin Painter came within one dart of matching Phil Taylor's nine-darter missing double 12 for the finish which would have been the first time that a tournament had witnessed two nine-darters on the same day.

The draw for the final day's matches took place at the end of Saturday's play and the quarter-final line-up featured a repeat of the previous year's quarter-final between Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld.

The tournament reached the quarter-finals stage and the first match on the main board saw Vincent van der Voort come from 0–5 behind to edge out Premier League finalist Terry Jenkins 11–10 to reach his first PDC semi-final. Colin Osborne beat Alan Green 11–6 on board two. Colin Lloyd followed on board two with another comeback, having been 0–4 behind he beat Steve Hine 11–6.

The clash between the world's top two ranked players ended with a convincing victory for Raymond van Barneveld against Phil Taylor. Van Barneveld won four successive legs from 3–2 up and then further extended his lead to 9–3. Taylor took the 13th leg when he took out 182 with a usual combination of a maximum 180 and double one on his next visit. But van Barneveld won the next leg to win 11–4 and give Taylor one of his heaviest defeats on television.

Vincent van der Voort produced a second successive 11–10 win to reach the final by beating Colin Osborne in the semi-final whilst defending champion Raymond van Barneveld had a more comfortable win 11–4 over Colin Lloyd – meaning he'd beaten his two rivals in the top three of the world rankings on the same day. In the final, van Barneveld raced to a 4–0 win hitting his double on the first attempt each time before van der Voort managed to get two legs on the scoreboard. Van Barneveld then took the next four legs, then further extended his lead to 13–5. Van der Voort tried to stay with van Barneveld and took three of the next five legs but a double top in the 24th leg sealed a second successive UK Open title for van Barneveld.

• List of qualifiers from the Order of Merit
• Planetdarts website results and reports