The 2009 Blue Square UK Open was the seventh year of the PDC darts tournament where, following numerous regional qualifying heats throughout Britain, players competed in a single elimination tournament to be crowned champion. The tournament was held at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton, England, between 4–7 June 2009 and has the nickname, "the FA Cup of darts" as a random draw is staged after each round until the final.
There were eight regional final events staged between January and May 2009 to determine the UK Open Order of Merit Table. The tournament winners were:
11 January (North-East; Doncaster): Colin Lloyd 6–1 Colin Osborne
8 March (Scotland; Irvine): Robert Thornton 6–2 Dennis Priestley
15 March (North-West; Wigan): James Wade 6–3 Kevin McDine
22 March (South-East; Brentwood): Phil Taylor 6–4 Terry Jenkins
29 March (West Midlands; Coventry): Phil Taylor 6–5 Wayne Jones
12 April (South-West; Taunton): Phil Taylor 6–0 Andy Hamilton
19 April (East Midlands; Derby): Mark Walsh 6–5 Raymond van Barneveld
10 May (Wales; Newport): Jamie Caven 6–5 Alan Tabern
Format and qualifiers
The tournament features 129 players. As in previous years, eight regional UK Open events were staged across the UK where players winning are collated into the UK Open Order Of Merit. The top 96 players and ties in the list, who played a minimum of three events received a place at the final stages.[1]
The Holsten qualifiers and the players outside the top 32 of the UK Open Order of Merit began the tournament on the Thursday night. They played down to 32 players, and they were joined by the top 32 of the UK Open Order of Merit the following night, to provide the competition's last 64. A random draw was made after each subsequent round.
32 players were due to have qualified from four Holsten Pils qualifiers held in Aylesbury, Batley, Birmingham and Salford. However, Peter Green had to withdraw for unknown reasons, thus meaning there were only 31 qualifiers present in Bolton.[2]
