1979 BDO World Darts Championship

[The Cat]

The 2nd championship moved from Nottingham to Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke where it stayed until 1985. The main changes from the inaugural event were the introduction of set play to replace the matchplay format which has remained in place ever since, the expansion to 24 players instead of the 16 contesting the championship the previous year and the 8 seeds receiving a bye straight into the 2nd round.
Yet again defending champion Leighton Rees was seeded 3rd and won his way to the final where he met the top seed John Lowe who gained the first of his 3 World Titles in a 5-0 victory over the reigning champion. 2nd seed Eric Bristow broke his duck this year in beating Australia’s Terry O’Dea before losing to Alan Evans 3-1 in the quarter finals. Evans lost in the semi final to Rees in a repeat of the previous year’s final.
Scottish legend Jocky Wilson made his World Championship debut before losing to John Lowe in the quarters.

Results:

First Round
Doug McCarthy 2 V 1 Charlie Ellix
Jim McQuillan 2 V 0 Murray Smith
Alan Glazier 2 V 1 Andy Green
Ceri Morgan 2 V 1 Barry Atkinson
Tony Clark (Wal) 2 V 0 Bill Lennard
Rab Smith 2 V 1 Conrad Daniels
Ronnie Davies 2 V 0 Tony Sontag
Terry O Dea 2 V 0 Cliff Lazarenko

2nd Round
John Lowe 2 V 0 Doug McCarthy
Jocky Wilson 2 V 1 Jim McQuillan
Alan Glazier 2 V 1 Nicky Virachkul
Tony Brown 2 V 0 Ceri Morgan
Leighton Rees 2 V 1 Tony Clark (Wal)
Rab Smith 2 V 1 Stefan Lord
Alan Evans 2 V 0 Ronnie Davies
Eric Bristow 2 V 0 Terry O Dea

Quarter Final
John Lowe 3 V 1 Jocky Wilson
Tony Brown 3 V 2 Alan Glazier
Leighton Rees 3 V 0 Rab Smith
Alan Evans 3 V 1 Eric Bristow

Semi Final
John Lowe 3 V 2 Tony Brown
Leighton Rees 3 V 1 Alan Evans

3rd Place Tony Brown w/o Alan Evans

Final John Lowe 5 V 0 Leighton Rees


Prize money
Total Prize fund was £15,000 (plus a £12,000 bonus for a nine-dart finish - not won)
• Champion £4,500
• Runner-up £2,000
• Third Place £1,500
• Fourth Place £1,000
• Quarter finalists £500
• 2nd round losers £300
• 1st round losers £200

[The Cat]

[youtube][/youtube]

[spaceman70]

The 1979 Embassy World Darts Championship was the second World Professional Championships. Having been held the previous year at the Heart of the Midlands Club in Nottingham, the event moved to Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke-on-Trent where it was to remain until 1985.

The tournament was held between February 2 and February 9 and had been expanded from 16 players to 24. The eight seeded players each received a bye into the second round. The format also changed from a straight matchplay (legs) to sets. Each set was the best of 5 legs.

For matches in the opening rounds the matches were best of three sets, best of five for the quarter-finals and semi-finals, with the final being best of 9 sets, split over an afternoon and evening session with the play-off for third held in between.

Defending champion, Leighton Rees of Wales again progressed to the final where he met John Lowe in a repeat of the inaugural championship. This time, Lowe was the top seed and came out on top in the final by 5 sets to 0.

With the expansion from 16 to 24 players in the finals, 11 players made their championship debuts, the most notable being John Wilson of Scotland, no doubt to be soon known as Jocky. Wilson's performances over 1978 had enabled him to be seeded 8th for the tournament, and thus ensure a place in round 2 straight away.

Wilson entering the seeds meant he would replace Rab Smith, the Scot having to play the first round before moving into the later stages. England's John Lowe had risen to be number 1 seed, with Eric Bristow dropping to 2nd seed after his first round defeat a year earlier. Leighton Rees remained seeded 3, with Tony Brown moving up to number 4. The Semi-Finalist from 1978 Nicky Virachkul was seeded 5th with the other Last 4 man, Stefan Lord seeded 6th. Alan Evans was the 7th seed along with Wilson as 8th.

The second Embassy World Championship opened up with the first surprise, Doug McCarthy's 2-1 win over Charlie Ellix. - McCarthy would meet Lowe in the last 16 later on in the event. Jim McQuillian, following Patrick Clifford as only the second Irishman to pay in the World Championship, looked comfortable in his 2-0 win over Murray Smith, whose long trek to Stoke from New Zealand was over before it had begun.

Total Prize fund was £15,000 (plus a £12,000 bonus for a nine-dart finish - not won)
Champion £4,500
Runner-up £2,000
Third Place £1,500
Fourth Place £1,000
Quarter finalists £500
2nd round losers £300
1st round losers £200

John Lowe
Doug McCarthy
Charlie Ellix
Jocky Wilson
Jim McQuillan
Murray Smith
Tony Brown
Nicky Virachkul
Alan Glazier
Andy Green
Ceri Morgan
Barry Atkinson
Tony Clark
Bill Lennard
Leighton Rees
Rab Smith
Stefan Lord
Conrad Daniels
Alan Evans
Ronnie Davies
Tony Sontag
Eric Bristow
Terry O'Dea
Cliff Lazarenko

John Lowe won the final 5-0 (3-1, 3-0, 3-0, 3-2, 3-0)and won the 1979 Embassy World Darts Championship. The third place match didn't take place due to illness of Alan Evans so Tony Brown took the third spot.

[Al Capone]

Does anyone know why it was moved from Nottingham to Stoke? and why it was held in Nottingham in the 1st place?

[TROUBLEAGAIN]

Tony Clark from around my way was selected for Wales this season after a 20 year gap.

[Dr.Eddie Norman MBE]

I can a little background on a few of the overseas players that may or may not be of interest as I would hate to bore anyone with too many facts from so long ago.

Conrad Daniels came from Trenton, New Jersey and was christened I believe by Dave Lanning'The Leaning Lampost' as because of his height (6foot4 ? ) when he threw he had a great lean over the hockey.

I almost played Conrad Daniels at the 1975 North American Open in Disneyland, someone who shall be nameless foolishly entered me in the championship, and being 301 double in and out, my opponents in my first three rounds could not start until I was on a double after about 50!! darts and I was told if I won my next game I would play Conrad Daniels .

Luckily for me I lost and Conrad won the championship that year. I have never thrown a dart since.

He also won the 1975 Indoor League and The US Open.

I think Conrad will be about 70 this year, and he narrowly missed out on qualification in 2006 for The World Series of Darts in the PDC event.


Andy Green actually was English and came from Plymouth and knew Cliff Inglis also from Plymouth.

He emigrated to California, and became good friends with Tom and Della Fleetwood the pioneers of USA steel tip darts.


Barry Atkinson was Scottish and emigrated to Australia in about 1973.He represented Scotland in 1971 in The News of The World Championships and I believe he was the first Scot to do so from The Scotland Divisional final.

Born around1937 he was the first player to hit back to back 180's on TV , when he played Ronnie Davis in The Butlin Grand Masters in Birmingham in 1978 playing from 8 feet which was the mark for this championship.

Barry wrote the great book on darts 'Getting to the Point' and I was fortunate to pick up a copy when I visited the darts firm he started in South Australia two years ago.

Murray Smith was Scottish and emigrated to New Zealand and won the 1994 New Zealand Masters and 1995 New Zealand Open.

The great Jim McQuillan was the first player to represent Ireland in The News of The World Finals in 1974.

He lost in the semi final to the eventual winner Pete Chapman but look a leg of Peter, Peter won the championship defeating a good friend of mine Paul Gosling from Cornwall in the final.

I think Jim would be about 71 or so now today. In that 1974 News of the World Final the Original Ice Man -Al Lippman from the USA beat the tournament favourite Leighton Rees in the First Round.

Much of this stuff is in the 1978 Leighton Rees Year Book that I wrote and was published by Billboard in 1978 which is now out of print.




www.eddienormandarts.com

[Paddy McGinty]

I can a little background on a few of the overseas players that may or may not be of interest as I would hate to bore anyone with too many facts from so long ago.

Conrad Daniels came from Trenton, New Jersey and was christened I believe by Dave Lanning'The Leaning Lampost' as because of his height (6foot4 ? ) when he threw he had a great lean over the hockey.

I almost played Conrad Daniels at the 1975 North American Open in Disneyland, someone who shall be nameless foolishly entered me in the championship, and being 301 double in and out, my opponents in my first three rounds could not start until I was on a double after about 50!! darts and I was told if I won my next game I would play Conrad Daniels .

Luckily for me I lost and Conrad won the championship that year. I have never thrown a dart since.

He also won the 1975 Indoor League and The US Open.

I think Conrad will be about 70 this year, and he narrowly missed out on qualification in 2006 for The World Series of Darts in the PDC event.


Andy Green actually was English and came from Plymouth and knew Cliff Inglis also from Plymouth.

He emigrated to California, and became good friends with Tom and Della Fleetwood the pioneers of USA steel tip darts.


Barry Atkinson was Scottish and emigrated to Australia in about 1973.He represented Scotland in 1971 in The News of The World Championships and I believe he was the first Scot to do so from The Scotland Divisional final.

Born around1937 he was the first player to hit back to back 180's on TV , when he played Ronnie Davis in The Butlin Grand Masters in Birmingham in 1978 playing from 8 feet which was the mark for this championship.

Barry wrote the great book on darts 'Getting to the Point' and I was fortunate to pick up a copy when I visited the darts firm he started in South Australia two years ago.

Murray Smith was Scottish and emigrated to New Zealand and won the 1994 New Zealand Masters and 1995 New Zealand Open.

The great Jim McQuillan was the first player to represent Ireland in The News of The World Finals in 1974.

He lost in the semi final to the eventual winner Pete Chapman but look a leg of Peter, Peter won the championship defeating a good friend of mine Paul Gosling from Cornwall in the final.

I think Jim would be about 71 or so now today. In that 1974 News of the World Final the Original Ice Man -Al Lippman from the USA beat the tournament favourite Leighton Rees in the First Round.

Much of this stuff is in the 1978 Leighton Rees Year Book that I wrote and was published by Billboard in 1978 which is now out of print.




http://www.eddienormandarts.com

Love it Eddie, you are a little gem, most of this info is slightly before my time and I love reading the facts.

PS the link to your website doesn't work Eddie, is your site down at the moment?

Best Regards Paddy

[Mark_G]

Did Conrad win a major title or am I just imagining that? He threw very slow right?

Thanks for the info though, the work of a true All-Darter.

[Lee Taylor]

I love reading Eddie's posts, as much as I loved visiting The House of Darts back in the late 80's.

Eddie, are you still in contact with Pete Smith? I used to play in the Chew Valley league with Pete, along with Keith and Mark Dudbridge, Colin Seargeant, Alan Moreton, Alfie Cox, Mike Bailey etc etc.

Most of those guys are still playing to a decent standard. Loved those days so much.

Lee.

[spaceman70]

Is Eddie still travelling all over the world spreading the good word?

[Lee Taylor]

Is Eddie still travelling all over the world spreading the good word?

I thought when The House of Darts closed (early 90's? - Mace would know) that Eddie emigrated to Australia?

[ChrisW]

78-79 will have been the first WCs that I watched and also the same time i started playing darts and having to throw high as the board was a little bit too high
for a 8-9 year old. Remember most of the names but mailnly the Sf's Finals. Great idea to start these threads and take away the silliness during the darts break on TV.

[spaceman70]

Is Eddie still travelling all over the world spreading the good word?

I thought when The House of Darts closed (early 90's? - Mace would know) that Eddie emigrated to Australia?

His wife is an Aussie, but I thought he still lived in the West Country.

[Lee Taylor]

Is Eddie still travelling all over the world spreading the good word?

I thought when The House of Darts closed (early 90's? - Mace would know) that Eddie emigrated to Australia?

His wife is an Aussie, but I thought he still lived in the West Country.

I'll ask Dubby, he'll know.

[Chris Mason]

Nice work uncle Eddie.

[AndySamson]

Shame their is not much TV archive for this Embassy tournement (only the final available),Would love to have seen a slimish moptoped Jocky Wilson making his first assault on the Embassy.Can anyone explain why their isn't even as much as a photograph of Wilson during Embassy79 on the net ? Or of most of the Embassy players 78-85 ?.

[nikkiboy]

merged with Cat's original topic