The 2012 Lakeside World Professional Darts Championship was the 35th BDO World Darts Championship organised by the British Darts Organisation, and the 27th staging at the Lakeside Country Club at Frimley Green. It took place from January 7th to January 15th.
The tournament was won by Christian Kist, an unseeded team who was making their début at the event; Kist beat Tony O'Shea 7–5 in the final. Two-time defending champion Martin Adams lost in the quarter-finals against O'Shea.[1][2]
The defending women's champion Gulliver, a nine-time winner of the event, lost in the semi-finals to Anastasia Dobromyslova. Dobromyslova then beat Deta Hedman in the final to win her second world title.[3]
Both men's semi-finals were the subject of controversy. In the first, between Ted Hankey and Christian Kist, Hankey complained repeatedly about the air conditioning at the venue, claiming it was blowing his darts off course. Hankey later alleged that this was done deliberately, as he would be joining the PDC after the tournament.[4] This was days after a similar incident at the rival PDC World Championship, which led to Adrian Lewis and James Wade walking off the stage due to a draft. Referring to that incident, Martin Adams, a BDO board member, had said before the Lakeside event started: “I can promise there will be no gusts of wind blowing across the stage.” Then, in the second semi-final, between Tony O'Shea and Wesley Harms, the players left the stage so the board could be replaced following 23 bounce outs.[5]
Players from five countries including a record number of eight Dutch players took part in the tournament.
Format and qualifiers
Men's
The televised stages featured 32 players. The top 16 players in the WDF/BDO rankings over the 2010/11 season were seeded for the tournament.[6]
The 32 players who qualified for invitation into the first round proper of the men's singles were:
There was also a shared 9 Dart Checkout prize of £52,000, along with a High Checkout prize of £3,000 per event.
Results bracket
The draw for the tournament was made on 7 November 2011 live on ESPN.[10][11]
Men's
Match distances in sets are quoted in brackets at the top of each round. All sets are best of five legs, unless there is a final set tie-break. (The final set must be won by two clear legs; if it reaches 5–5, the 11th leg is decisive.)
The tournament was broadcast jointly in the UK by the BBC and ESPN. The BBC broadcast the afternoon session of the opening weekend, afternoon highlights from 9 to 13 January, the first semi final and the final. ESPN broadcast the evening session of the opening weekend, round two matches, the quarter-finals, the second semi final and highlights of the final. The BBC's coverage was presented by Colin Murray with Bobby George being the pundit. ESPN's coverage was presented by Ray Stubbs and Nat Coombs. Commentary on both channels came from David Croft, Tony Green and Vassos Alexander.[16] The tournament was also screened on Eurosport and Eurosport Asia in 99 other countries.[17]
